Around 3,000 athletes of 24 nationalities will take part in the Q8 10th Famalicão Half Marathon next Sunday, 20 October. The race is scheduled to start at 9.30am on Avenida do Brasil, in Famalicão, and involves a 21-kilometre route and a 10-kilometre run and walk, passing through the city's main arteries.
The Mayor, Mário Passos, and the general director of Run Porto, Jorge Teixeira, attended the presentation of the race, which took place on Tuesday morning in the Town Hall of Vila Nova de Famalicão.
‘We're already on the international radar,’ said the mayor of Vila Nova de Famalicão, referring to the high number of athletes registered from inside and outside Portugal, which surpassed all previous editions.
‘It's a race that has become attractive to international athletes, as a result of the work carried out in partnership with Run Porto, and the efforts of the municipality to raise this race to levels of excellence that put Famalicão on the route of the biggest athletics competitions,’ said Mário Passos.
The mayor took the opportunity to recall the strong sporting spirit of Famalicão's population, which is also boosted by municipal programmes to promote physical exercise, as well as investment in equipment, such as the future Athletics Centre, an investment of more than 6.2 million euros, which will start up soon in the municipality.
‘We're hoping for records (...) there are a lot of athletes who come with that in mind,’ says Jorge Teixeira, confident that records will be broken in this edition.
This year, the race also has the particularity of being part of the World Athletics competition calendar, following the technical and competition rules of world athletics, which allows athletes to obtain homologated marks, which leads Jorge Teixeira to be confident that ‘many marks will be broken’.
‘We don't have a single bib to sell, which makes us believe that Famalicão has a bright future ahead of it,’ namely a future that could include “sports tourism, something that is proliferating in countless cities, and in Famalicão it could also happen if we continue at this pace,” emphasised the general director of Run Porto.
‘It's sold out because people liked it, the atmosphere is fantastic, we're well received in Famalicão,’ commented athlete Dulce Félix, winner of the last two editions of the Famalicão Half Marathon, in the women's category, who was present at the presentation of the 10th edition of the race, in which she will also take part.
It should be noted that this year the Famalicão Half Marathon is also one of the events included in the 10th European Games for Security, Protection, Rescue and Emergency Forces (X European Police & Fire Games), taking place in Braga from 11 to 20 October, a multi-sport competition aimed at members of the security and civil protection forces. Around 100 athletes associated with the initiative will be taking part.
The Q8 10th Famalicão Half Marathon is organised by the Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão and Run Porto.
