European Week of Sport Starts with LED’s Run
Text: defence.hu / MTI | Photo: Dr. Ádám Schmidt’s Facebook page | 14:47 September 24, 2024The LED’s Run night running, the official opening event of the European Week of Sport in Budapest, was held with the participation of thousands of hobby sportspersons in the National Athletics Centre on Monday evening.
Before the start, welcoming speeches were held by Dr. Ádám Schmidt, MoD State Secretary for Sport, Georg Häusler, Director for Culture, Creativity and Sport in the European Commission and Gábor Balogh, president of the Hungarian Student Sports Association.
Dr. Ádám Schmidt said that besides opening the European Week of Sport on this day, we can also celebrate the LED’s Run event and the reopening of the National Athletics Centre.
“The main message of the European Week of Sport is similar to that of our event: through sports, we would like to reach out to as many people as possible and promote sports to teach fundamental values to many Hungarians so that they can live healthily. The LED’s Run event is organised within the framework of the Sporting Nation Program. It is not by chance that we are here, in the athletics centre because it is our mission that these facilities serve not only professional athletes but also hobby sportspersons” – said the state secretary.
He also added that the reopening of the National Athletics Centre was also celebrated with this event; and until the next large-scale national or international sports event, hobby sportspersons will be able to use it. The facility was revamped accordingly.
Nearly four thousand runners registered for the Monday event, where they could run two or five kilometres and they ran around the National Athletics Centre inside and outside.
Several Hungarian athletes participated, who also attended the Paris Olympic and Paralympic games, such as the gold medallist open water swimmer, Kristóf Rasovszky, the gold medallist pentathlete, Michelle Gulyás and Máté Koch, gold medallist épée fencer in group.
The European Week of Sport is one of the greatest campaigns promoting sports and active lifestyle, which was initiated by the European Commission in 2015. The goal of the event is for European citizens to do as much exercise as they can on the week between 23 and 30 September and stay active also after the week of sport if possible.
During the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU, the anti-doping fight is a stressed issue in the field of sports. Before the opening of the European Week of Sport, Ádám Schmidt, MoD State Secretary for Sport negotiated with Witold Bańka, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in person.
