The celebration next Sunday from 8:00 will be the key moment for the participants who will be on the starting line, but also an important date for all the people of Gran Canaria to come and cheer them on.
The Maspalomas Golf Course hosted this morning the presentation of the first edition of the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon, a race that will take place next Sunday, November 21st. The race will run through the main avenues and streets of Maspalomas and Meloneras and will be run in two categories: marathon and 10 kilometres.
The City Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and DG Eventos are organising this event in which the Cabildo of Gran Canaria is collaborating through the Sports Department, headed by Francisco Castellano, and the Tourism Department, headed by Carlos Álamo. It also has the support of the Government of the Canary Islands, through Promotur and the brand "Islas Canarias, latitud de vida".
The event was presented by the Mayoress of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Concepción Narváez, the Councillor for Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, the Councillor for Sports of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Francisco Castellano, the Councillor for Sports of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Samuel Henríquez and the Sports Director of the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon, Aarón Sánchez.
The mayoress of the municipal corporation pointed out in her speech that "the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon is a fundamental tool for the promotion of tourism, due to the number of international runners who have registered to come and run in Maspalomas" - added Narváez - "as well as the promotion of sport in general, healthy living and beneficial lifestyle habits for society".
The Minister of Tourism, Industry and Trade of the Canary Islands Government, Yaiza Castilla, hoped that "the sports tourism niche that the Canary Islands Government Department is promoting will continue to work, as it generates greater spending at the destination, longer stays and exponential growth, as athletes come accompanied by friends, family or teammates".
He was followed by the Councillor for Sports, Francisco Castellano, who underlined that "for months the organisers have been preparing all the details of this race and now the starting gun is finally fired for the 42 kilometres". Castellano stressed that "the race will be held in the magnificent setting of Maspalomas".
Samuel Henríquez, the Sports Councillor of the host municipality, stated that "with the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon, the enthusiasm of the Canarian athletes has been recovered and a focus of attraction for foreign runners has also been created". As well as wishing luck to all the competitors, he expressed his gratitude to all the organisers, institutions and sponsors who have supported this event from the very beginning so that it could take place. The celebration next Sunday from 8:00 will be the key moment for the participants who will be on the starting line, but also an important date for all the people of Gran Canaria to come and cheer them on.
The presentation was closed by the director of the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon, who explained the details of the race and the complementary activities of this great sporting event for the island. Aaron Sánchez pointed out that "the marathon has more than 950 registered participants and more than 1600 in the 10K, very important figures to be coming out of the health situation of the last two years". He also thanked the participating institutions for their collaboration and emphasised that "they have all worked over the last six months to complete the work required for a marathon".
The Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon is presented as a sporting event that will continue to grow slowly and surely to achieve its consolidation as one of the major sporting events in the Canary Islands and at a national level. One of the main objectives of this event is to recover the enthusiasm and loyalty of the Canarian athletes who will have a new marathon after these two years of pandemic. In addition to being an event with a clear international projection to be a focus of attraction for runners from outside Gran Canaria, as a fundamental tool for the reactivation of tourism on the island, confirming the success of the sport and tourism binomial.
Information was also given about the times and locations of the different start times: at 08:00 hours, the marathon will start from the Faro de Maspalomas lighthouse, 35 minutes later the runners of the Vithas 10K will start from the same location. The Holiday World Kids Race will take place on Saturday 20th from 10:30 am and the Active Run, which will start at 9:00 am. In addition to the races, there will be a Runner's Fair, with stands specialising in health, nutrition and athletics.
Participants will have the best services for runners with good refreshment facilities (liquid and solid), timing service, 100% asphalt and flat course, with the best entertainment by batucadas, bands, DJs... In addition, the RIU cycling team will accompany the first three in the men's and women's categories throughout the course.
Registered
Registration through the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon website closed on Sunday afternoon, but registration continues in person from today until Saturday 20th in the Faro de Maspalomas area from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00. It will be from Thursday 18th when you can also pick up your race bib and runner's bag.
A total of 950 runners have registered for the 42 kilometre race and 1,600 for the 10 kilometre race. Nearly 40% of the participants come from outside the island of Gran Canaria. Among the main countries of origin are Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. At the national level, Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia are the countries with the highest number of participants in the marathon.
The Spanish Masters Marathon Championships will be contested by 87 participants (21 women and 66 men).
The Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon has the fundamental support of the Local Police and Civil Protection with more than 150 personnel who will ensure the safe celebration of the event. In addition to nearly 500 volunteers from countless clubs on the island who will be looking after all the runners.
During today's event, the collaboration with the transport company GLOBAL has been announced, which will facilitate the transport of all those registered for the marathon and the 10K free of charge by showing their race bib number and from any point on the island of Gran Canaria.
The organisation of the Gran Canaria-Maspalomas Marathon has counted on Macro Fit as official training centre, Vithas as health partner and sponsor of the 10K. The technical brands Luanvi and Health and a long list of sponsors such as Holiday World, sponsor of the Kids Race, Powerade, Base Bazar Sport, Mercedes-Benz, and Gabinete Deportivo Mejorando.
