In Gegharkunik Province, at the road section of Shoghakat-Sevana Lake peninsula, the "Prime Minister's Cup" amateur bicycle racing tournament was held for the third year in a row. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the awarding ceremony of the tournament.

The tournament was held in 2 age groups of women and men. The first age group included women and men aged 18 to 40, and the second age group included women and men aged 41 and older.

The participants who took the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the tournament in the two age groups were awarded with respective certificates, cups and medals of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. Participants who took 1st to 10th place in both age groups also received cash prizes. Accordingly, the 1st place participant received 1,000,000 AMD, the 2nd place - 500,000 AMD, the 3rd place - 300,000 AMD, the 4th place - 100,000 AMD, the 5th-10th places 50,000 AMD each.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Karen Giloyan presented the awards to the winners.

Prime Minister Pashinyan handed over letters of gratitude and incentive awards to the oldest male and female participants.

Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan was among the more than 300 participants of the tournament.

During the event, Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech, in which he particularly said,

"Dear Cabinet members,
Statesmen,
Dear attendees,
Winners and participants,

First of all, I want to congratulate all of you on the occasion of the Republic Day. I must emphasize that the "Prime Minister's Cup" is also a tournament by which we record and emphasize the connection between the citizen and the state.

Speaking today in Sardarapat, I said that our perception is as follows. the state, the country, living in the Republic of Armenia should be comfortable and beneficial for the citizen of Armenia. One of the most important messages of the "Prime Minister’s Cup" tournaments is just that: we want to create as many opportunities as possible so that the citizen of the Republic of Armenia has an opportunity to overcome himself, to compete with himself first of all, and to prove as a citizen, as a rightful owner of the state, that our will to have a sovereign, free, strong, developed, prosperous and happy state is unshakable. Our course should show this every year.

I want to express gratitude to all the participants for that with these tournaments we emphasize our statehood, our flag, our citizenship, our will to live, our will to overcome, our will to move forward.

I want to emphasize that from next year, we will expand the scale of this tournament, road cycling. First, we will internationalize the competition, that is, everyone, regardless of citizenship, will have the opportunity to participate. The tournament will take place around Sevan. If necessary, if experts say, the road cycling will last two days, and, of course, the prize fund will be doubled accordingly. I hope that with this emphasis we will further strengthen this tradition, we will also emphasize Gegharkunik region, we will emphasize Lake Sevan. Especially, I am sure that by next year all the roads around Sevan will be in perfect condition, and we will not be ashamed to invite foreigners to those roads as well.

And I think this year we will internationalize the "Prime Minister’s Cup" swimming competition, and we will open the possibility of participation to everyone, especially considering that there are many relocated persons living in the Republic of Armenia, and they also constantly apply and say that they also want to participate.

Dear attendees,

And we will think about the other tournaments. Of course, we will maintain the amateur nature of the road cycling. We will set very clear technical rules for the bikes so that everything is correct and fair.

Once again, I thank the organizers, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, the Ministry of Health. Special thanks to the Ministry of Economy for participating, because, yes, in case of internationalization, a healthy lifestyle, this kind of event also has a great potential to promote tourism in Armenia. I think that every time we need to reinforce this context, and highlight the importance of the Prime Minister’s Cup road cycling tournament.

Thank you and congratulations to all."