• Until today the Budapest Sports Office (BSI) registered runners from 995 Hungarian settlements and 81 countries to participate this year’s Telekom Vivicittá City Run
• Charity run and donation for autists
• Telekom exchanges points collected for the run into donations through the hello holnap! application
• Telekom’s special offers include APPLE Watch and Fitbit wearable smart devices
• Free films on running in the Telekom TV and TVGO video on demand service

The biggest leisure time sport event of the year in Budapest, the 32th Telekom Vivicittá Run For The City, will be organized this weekend. Magyar Telekom and the Budapest Sports Office (BSI) jointly organize the race on April 8 and 9, 2017. The start and finish line on the first day will be relocated to a new place while on the second day runners will start from Olof Palme boulevard and arrive at Ötvenhatosok square.

Runners will come from 995 Hungarian settlements, even from small villages under 300 inhabitants, like: Kemeneskápolna (Vas county), Edve (Győr-Moson-Sopron county), Lócs (Vas county), Iliny (Nógrád county), Ebergőc (Győr-Moson-Sopron county), Patosfa (Somogy county), Gősfa (Zala county). Not counting Budapest and Pest county the following counties will have the most runners on Sunday: Fejér (397), Bács-Kiskun (298), Győr-Moson-Sopron (295). Budapest’s most runner friendly districts are: district XI. (704 runners), district XIII. (588 runners), district XIV. (555 runners). 81 countries send almost 2200 runners to the event (most of them - almost 1500 runners - chose the half marathon distance). Most foreign runners - 200 - come from Britain.

The oldest athlete is a 83 year old gentleman who plans to complete 10 kms (VIVICITTÁ).  The eldest lady (82) goes for the 5 km distance (MIDICITTÁ). A total of 64 runners above the age of 70 plan to complete various distances, among them 24 ladies. (The above numbers include all runners of all distances.)

The most popular distance of the Telekom Vivicittá Run For The City is the half marathon where the organizers already have 8000 participants. The eighth times winner athlete Szimona Staicu we also be among this year’s runners. There will also be famous people at the race, like Eszter Ónodi, Mari Jászai awardee actress, Dóra Pásztory, two times Paralympic champion and Eszter Zavaros, opera singer. This year pairs can also cover the half marathon distance together, so far there are 600 pairs on the race list (which is actually the maximum limit). The organizers already have 6000 preliminary applications for the classical 10 km Vivicittá run (with more women than men!) out of whom 534 runners come for the first time.

The organizers will naturally provide refreshments: 10,000 refreshments sponges, 150,000 cups, 3,600 litres of iso drinks and 45,000 litres of Szentirályi mineral water will be supplied to the runners.  There will also be 100 mobile toilets provided. BSI recruited a total of 1000 organizers to the event.  168 runners will celebrate their birthday on the day of the run.

Charity run and donation for autists

On the first day of the Telekom Vivicittá there will be a charity-runner team to complete the 2,5 km distance. The members include Zoltán Kammerer, three times Olympian and world champion kayaker, Miklós Ungvári, Olympian silver medalist and European champion judo athlete, Krisztina Lőrincz, Paralympic kayaker, on behalf of the Ferencvárosi Sports Club Vanda Juhász, Olympian and Hungarian champion javelin thrower, Pál Bedák, world championship silver medalist boxer, Krisztián Lisztes, 49 times member of the national football team, deputy professional director of FTC’s youth sport division, Balázs Simonyi, ultra distance runner and the representatives of the Sustainability Media Club, too. The race will be started by Dániel Gyurta, Olympian, three times world and two times European champion, László Cseh, Olympian silver and bronze medalist, world and European champion swimmers. The objective of the team is to call public attention to autism which has an impact on an increasing number of persons.

The charity run can be virtually joined by anyone in the social space. Those who wish to join the run through this channel only have to take a photo of themselves while running and wearing any of last year’s Telekom Vivicittá official jerseys then post these photo until May 14, 2017 on Instagram with the #egyekvagyunk hashtag. By joining the initiative the participants also raise donations because Telekom donates HUF 100 to the Autistic Art Foundation for each photo.

The support of autist persons is displayed in this year’s Telekom Vivicittá jersey: the back of the T-shirt features the graphical design of Máté Varga, autist artist.

Participants of the Telekom Vivicittá will have the opportunity to promote sustainability as besides supporting the Autistic Art Foundation the runners and their supporters may also give donations to other NGOs through the hello holnap! mobile application. By way of reading the QR codes placed in the start zone and in the racing bibs one can collect 3 hello holnap! points that Telekom redeems into 300 HUF. This amount can be donated by the user to any of the nine NGOs listed in the application. Out of these organizations the representatives of the Autistic Art, the ArtMan Association, the Hungarian Food Bank Association, the Hungarian Environment Protection Association, the Suhanj! (Ride!) Foundation and WWF Hungary will also take part in Telekom Vivicittá to present their activities and actual programs to the audience.

Discount priced smart device and accessory offers for athletes

Magyar Telekom, as the naming sponsor of the running festival, wishes to promote sports and leisure time activities therefore the company released the Vivicittá offer with discount priced smart products and accessories. Within the frame of the special offer runners can buy Apple Watch, Fitbit wristbands, JABRA sport products, Huawei activity wearables and Samsung smart devices. The Telekom Vivicittá offer is available between March 16 and May 14, 2017 across the country in specific Telekom shops or on theTelekom Vivicittá website until stocks are exhausted.

Let us prepare together - free films on running in the Telekom TV and TVGO video on demand servicesTelekom collected some films on sports in the Telekom TV video on demand service. These films are accessible for Telekom IPTV customers free of charge or for anyone on TVGO upon registration between April 1 and May 15, 2017.

Besides, HBO GO debuts on April 8 in line with the Telekom Vivicittá with the new documentary called ULTRA that features Spartathlon, one of the most famous, highest prestige and toughest ultramarathon running competition. In Balázs Simonyi’s creative documentary viewers may have an insight into the motivation and the near-psychedelic drama of 5 athletes throughout the legendary 246 km race. Balázs Simonyi, who is a member of the Telekom Vivicittá charity-run team, completed the Spartathlon for the 4th time in 2016.