Budapest Marathon expects 20,000 runners, 2,000 from abroad

Some 20,000 runners are expected to participate in the 37th Spar Budapest Marathon, including 2,000 from abroad, to be held on the second weekend of October.

State secretary for an “Active Hungary”, Máriusz Révész, told a press conference on Tuesday that according to a survey some 59 percent of Hungarians never do exercise and an additional 15 percent exercise only rarely. No progress has been made in the area over the past four years, with Covid having had a negative effect, he added. Leisure sport events currently attract only around two-thirds as many participants as in pre-pandemic times, he said.

Director of the organiser Budapest Sport Office (BSI), Arpad Kocsis, said that over the two-day marathon participants can choose between 15 runs of various length, the first one starting at 9am on Saturday. The main marathon will start at 9am on Sunday along the riverbanks in Buda and Pest, he added.

International participants are now returning to the Budapest marathon, with registrations received from 83 countries, mostly from the UK and France. The oldest to have registered is an 82-year-old man from France, he added.

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