Russian cities host running events amid virus

Russia held a nationwide running event in 85 cities on Sunday, including Moscow, despite having a ban on mass events due to COVID-19.

According to organisers, 17,000 people in Moscow and 8,000 people in St. Petersburg participated.

Oleg Matytsin, Russia's Sports Minister, said he hoped the event coincided with the nation being "conclusively over the pandemic".

Runners could run distances of between 1.5 km to 21.1km.

The half marathons across Russia happened at the same time, despite 11 time zones, TASS news agency reported.

Organisers hope the event will be registered in the Guinness book of world records, as the largest running event spanning dozens of cities.

Russia currently has the fourth largest population to have been confirmed with the coronavirus.

According to the Johns Hopkins tally, 849,277 people have been reported to have the virus.