AFP, BISHKEK
For weeks, 33-year-old civil servant Aizaratbek Esenov and about half a dozen other government employees have been exercising in front of cameras for a reality TV show in Kyrgyzstan.Broadcast nationwide, they run, swim and train together, all with the aim of getting their bodies physically able to take part in the amateur Asia Triathlon Cup this autumn.It might sound like a bizarre premise, but for the government, which is sponsoring the show, the goal is serious: to encourage Kyrgyz viewers to live healthier.
Aizaratbek Esenov, second right, a civil servant, attends swimming training at the Triathlon Center in Bishkek on April 29.
More than one-quarter of adults in the central Asian country are obese, while fewer than one in four practice a sport, official statistics said. The program, named “New Path,” is part of a government-led push to tackle the problem.
“At first it was hard, I couldn’t run and I was short of breath,” Esenov said, adding that he was used to “sitting in front of a computer from morning till night.”
