Georgian ambassadors for Wings for Life World Run charity unveiled in Tbilisi
From left: rescuer Aleksandre Shukvani, Wings for Life Sports Director Colin Jackson and Lieutenant Colonel Besarion Ghudushauri. Photo: Emergency Management Service of Georgia press office.
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Two service members of Georgian armed forces, a rescuer from the country’s Emergency Management Service and an award-winning teacher will be goodwill ambassadors for this year’s Wings for Life World Run charity event in the country this coming spring.
The four headlining figures of the run were unveiled in Tbilisi on Wednesday, in the run-up to the annual event promoted as the largest charity event in sport history.
Presenting the event’s Georgian edition, the ambassadors are:
- Lieutenant Colonel Besarion Ghudushauri, who served in the Georgian armed forces during the 2008 Russian-Georgian War and in the NATO peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan between 2013-2014. Ghudushauri also worked as Deputy Defence Attache of Georgia to the Baltic states and claimed two gold medals of the Invictus Games international competition in Canada and Australia;
- Corporal Giorgi Jabakhidze, a service member of the 4th Mechanised Brigade of the Georgian armed forces who fought in the 2008 conflict and claimed two Invictus Games gold medals between 2017-2018;
- Aleksandre Shukvani, a fire rescuer who saved a nine-month-old infant from fire in Tbilisi last year;
- Vladimer Apkhazava, a teacher awarded the 2017 National Teacher Prize in Georgia and nominated for this year’s Global Teacher Prize.
They were presented at a media event at the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, which also saw minister Mikheil Batiashvili and Colin Jackson, International Sports Director of the world run and Britain’s World- and European champion in hurdles, in attendance.
It is a major honour to be a goodwill ambassador for the Wings of Life World Run. Promoting healthy lifestyle is crucial, particularly when it comes to charity.
I encourage everyone to become part of this year's run," Shukvani said in his comments at the event.
Past goodwill ambassadors for the Georgian run included the country’s olympic champions Vladimer Khinchegashvili and Lasha Talakhadze as well as paralympic fencer Irma Khetsuriani.
Held in locations across the world simultaneously, Wings for Life World Run events mark a charity effort to raise funds for spinal cord research at major institutions.
Instead of a traditional static finish line, competitors run for as long as they can along a designated route until they are passed by an advancing ‘catcher car’, at which point their race is over.
The final contestant to be passed by the car is crowned the winner, with results from local runners also qualifying for a global result list.
Winners of the global World Runs get to pick the location for next year’s event as a recognition of their achievement.
The sixth edition of the run in Georgia will be held on 5 May in Kakheti province in the country’s east. The most recent run involved around 7,000 participants.