The Bukhara Night Race 2026 international running event, organized with the support of the Fund for the Development of Culture and Art, has been awarded the Recognized Event status under the Athletics for a Better World (ABW) sustainability assessment system developed by World Athletics. This system takes into account the event's impact on the environment, the local economy, and society.
Recognized Event is an official level of recognition granted by World Athletics, confirming that the event organizers meet the sustainability requirements set by the ABW standard. The status is awarded based on a comprehensive assessment across 120 parameters in six key areas: 'Leadership in Sustainability', 'Sustainable Production and Consumption', 'Climate Change and Carbon Emissions', 'Environment and Air Quality', 'Global Equality', and 'Diversity, Inclusion and Well-being'. These parameters may include collected waste, electricity and water consumption, as well as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles used to transport equipment, participants, and the organizing team.
The ABW system provides several levels of recognition: Recognized Event, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Thus, the Recognized Event status is the first official level of recognition granted by World Athletics under this system, confirming the event's compliance with the basic requirements of the ABW standard. Since the introduction of environmental certification for athletics events in 2024, 130 events have undergone World Athletics assessment. Of these, 84 received Recognized Event status, 16 received Bronze Label, 16 received Silver Label, 9 received Gold Label, and 5 received Platinum Label. All running events except Bukhara Night Race 2026 were either intended for professional athletes or claimed World Athletics Label status. Bukhara Night Race 2026 became the only event from Central Asia and the CIS included in this list.
The system allows tracking progress, recording high results, and demonstrating best practices. Events with World Athletics status are required to submit a report on their results to the federation. Accordingly, the organizers of Bukhara Night Race recorded the estimated carbon footprint of the event, waste volume, and other indicators. Within the framework of the competition, the number of vehicles involved in transporting the necessary equipment (five trucks with a carrying capacity of 10 tons each), the volume of fuel consumed by them (1600 cubic meters of methane), and the estimated electricity consumption (800 kW) were calculated.
All waste generated during the event was sorted. Its total weight amounted to 980 kg. The main part of the waste (87.1%) consisted of food and other waste. The share of all types of plastic waste was 10.1%. The competition is held on the principle of 'Cleaner Together', so the run is organized in conjunction with plogging — collecting waste along the route. Plogging participants at Bukhara Night Race 2026 collected plastic bottle caps. The total weight of collected caps was 16.2 kg. At the subsequent Zaamin Ultra 2026 and Sky Camp Bo’stonliq 2026 running events, participants of the plogging distance in Bukhara received exclusive medals cast from the caps they collected in Bukhara.
The team of managers and volunteers tried to use reusable containers. To reduce the amount of plastic at food courts, 5- and 20-liter water containers were used. In Tashkent, during the distribution of start packages, a sports swap — an exchange of wearable sports clothing — was held. After the swap, the organizers had 18 kg of clothing and footwear left, including cycling and running sportswear, as well as sports-style casual clothing. The cycling uniform was sent to a coach of young athletes in Bukhara, the running clothes to the city Youth Center, and the 'casual' clothing to a social center in Bukhara that assists homeless and people in difficult situations.
The organizers of Bukhara Night Race assess these and other figures reflected in the report not so much as an achievement, but rather as a starting point for tracking the dynamics of subsequent running events within the Samarkand Marathon Series, which consists of five competitions held by the Fund for the Development of Culture and Art in various regions of the country. The team has already submitted a report on the results of Zaamin Ultra and is preparing an analysis of Sky Camp Bo’stonliq. Monitoring allows for the improvement of each subsequent competition.
Source: www.gazeta.uz