- 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.