Donations collected at the runner festival help the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta

Almost 2.000 runners came to the start line for the classic marathon distance of 35th SPAR Budapest Marathon® Festival, during the two days of the runner weekend a total of 8100 runners competed against each other in different races. Because of the epidemic caused by coronavirus, the organizers prepared with special precautions in order to preserve the health of the participants.

Because of the pandemic, the 35th SPAR Budapest Marathon® Festival has taken place with unprecedented safety measures. The participants could receive their start number after filling in a COVID-19 statement in advance and after body temperature measurement. They could enter into the start zones compulsorily in facemask which they all had to wear until the start, then at the finish, they had to wear it again. Along the competition route, the organization of the refreshing stations and the receipt of the refreshments were contactless, the organizers placed hand sanitizers at several points.

On the second day of the 35th SPAR Budapest Marathon® Festival, a total of 1.930 runners started the classic marathon distance, the vast majority of the runners came from inland to the sport event because of the pandemic situation. During the two days of the festival, altogether 11.700 runners entered for the competition, more than 8.100 runners from them came to the start line as well. Because of the safety measures, all of the races were organized in start waves of 300 people.

SPAR Hungary as the main sponsor helped Hungary’s one of the biggest recreational sport events this year as well. The meat plant of the company, the Regnum Meat Plant and Building Centre welcomed the guests with hot dog and spicy debrecener and with different refreshments – among others with SPAR Verde mineral water – at the exhibition market established along the Pázmány Péter promenade. Similarly to previous years, the store chain offered also this year the income of the stand, that is more than HUF 600 thousand, for the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta.

The visitors could also become acquainted with the SPAR Lifestyle Programme and they could participate in prize competitions in connection with healthy lifestyle. The experts of the programme, Gábor Tóth and Katalin Turcsák answered questions regarding quality nutrition and sport during the weekend.

„SPAR Hungary support the event since 2008. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic made such circumstances in the life of the runner festival, we have never seen before. However, the organizers handled the situation remarkably and introduced several measures in the interest of the health of the participants. In the past years, the popularity of running has increased noticeably, apparently, more and more people start to wear running shoes. It is a headline target for SPAR Hungary to increase health awareness of our customers and we continue to support the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta in realizing their objectives” – said Márk Maczelka, Head of Communication at SPAR.