Two runners, one elderly and the other young, died during a half marathon in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Sunday, according to organizers.
The participants were identified as 84-year-old Akkoyan Rsaliyev, who has regularly taken part in races since 2021, and 21-year-old Nurbol Ahmadi, who had participated in a 10-kilometer race and had registered for several long-distance events, including a marathon in Almaty.
Rsaliyev suddenly felt bad in the first kilometer of the 21.1-kilometer run and responders in an ambulance that drove up to him found no pulse, the marathon organizers said in a statement. They quoted Dr. Alibek Khozhanazarov as saying an initial diagnosis was that the runner had a pulmonary embolism and had been suffering from chronic arterial hypertension.
Then Ahmadi lost consciousness at the 16-kilometer mark and doctors arriving at the scene tried in vain to resuscitate him. The preliminary diagnosis was a pulmonary embolism and acute heart failure, according to Dr. Aigerim Yesdauletova.
The Courage to Be the First corporate foundation, which supported the race, expressed its condolences to the families and friends of the runners who died.
The organizers said they “acted according to the regulations: medical services, emergency services and the police worked quickly and in a timely manner. Despite the measures taken, it was not possible to save the lives of the participants.”