A martial arts marathon in a new format will be held in Irkutsk. It is now aimed mainly at schoolchildren and their parents, with matches on three venues and ending the same day.

The president of the Baikal Kyokushin Karate League, Alexander Klassen, noted that this year the event’s format has changed somewhat. The main goal of the marathon has become the popularization of martial arts. The event is aimed primarily at schoolchildren and their parents. Previously, the marathon lasted a full 24 hours, and it was mainly adult athletes who took part in it. Now the bouts will be held on 3 venues, will begin at 11 a.m., and will end by 7 p.m. The participants in the fights will be students of martial arts schools—teenagers and pupils of Irkutsk schools.
As a reminder, the first 24-hour Martial Arts Marathon, “5,000 Bouts,” was held in Irkutsk in 2008 and became an event with no analogues in Russia or in the world. The marathon’s main goal was to bring together athletes practicing different martial arts disciplines on one platform. The most extreme was the second 24-hour marathon in 2009: all day and all night, while the participants held 6,630 fights, wet snow was falling. At 11 a.m. the next day, during the marathon’s finish, the clouds parted and the sun shone over the tatami.
The third martial arts marathon in 2010 was recorded by the “Russian Records” association. On the last weekend of August, by the monument to Alexander III, 263 athletes from Irkutsk, Bratsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye, Ust-Ilimsk, Shelekhov, Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk and Zabaykalsky krais held a total of 11,422 fights over 24 hours—a record for events of this format in Russia.
The fourth martial arts marathon, “10,000 Bouts,” in 2011 became a highlight of the anniversary program marking the 350th anniversary of Irkutsk. Over 24 hours, more than 250 athletes from Irkutsk, Bratsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye, Ust-Ilimsk, Shelekhov, Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk and Zabaykalsky krais held 9,014 fights. Last year, about 300 athletes from 10 sports federations of Irkutsk took part in the fifth anniversary martial arts marathon, “BanZai week-end,” where over the course of a day the fighters held about 7,000 bouts.