The World Athletics Championships, which begin in Budapest on Saturday, will already bring many tangible benefits and unite the nation. In Budapest, the landscape wound was healed, and the ruined rust area was rejuvenated. The city has become more beautiful, greener and more livable. The World Cup is a major boost to tourism, bringing half a million guest nights to Hungarian hotels. “We are on the cusp of success, and this is the result of six years of teamwork, thanks to everyone,” Balazs Forges, co-chair of the World Cup Organizing Committee, told MTI.
The Hungarian Olympic Committee, the Hungarian Athletics Association, the municipalities of Budapest and Ferentcvaros and by the government as part of Budapest’s 2017 Olympic bid 2015, the location and concept of the Athletics Center were determined and that the center would be located in a new, much larger urban leisure and sports park on the bank of the Danube in Ferencvaros, on the site of the former destroyed rust area.
The National Sports Center is more than just a stadium, it is also an urban rehabilitation, where 15 hectares of contaminated and neglected areas have been regenerated. “In place of rust, the city has turned green, and the people of Budapest can once again take possession of the Danube bank of Ferencváros.”
He confirmed.
He added that the sports center, which can accommodate 35,000 spectators, occupies a third of the park. After the World Cup, the stands will be reduced to 15,000, and instead of the temporary stands, an 800-meter elevated panoramic jogging circuit will be created that can be used by anyone in the facility. In addition, a municipal sports kindergarten will operate in the athletics center, and the training center can also be used by students from nearby Patina universities. The World Cup co-chair said that every year some local and international competitions, training, competitive sports for adults and youth, university sports and recreational sports will ensure the benefit of the athletics center built in the park. He added that the park’s playgrounds, sports fields and green spaces, as well as the emerging Danube bank, will be a favorite place for many Budapest residents.
The athletics center is the greenest public building in Hungary, with 100 percent renewable energy ensuring cooling and heating, and 200 geothermal soil probes placed in the ground.
Balazs Forges noted. He noted that the two-and-a-half-year construction provided work for 5,000 Hungarian people, and three steel chain bridges and ten pieces of concrete equivalent to a ten-story house were built at the facility.
This will be the first Central European Athletics Championships
He stated that for the first time during the World Championships in London, the Hungarian Athletics Federation, led by Miklós Gyulai, negotiated with Sebastian Coe, President of the International Association of Athletics Federations, about organizing the World Cup clearly. With the support of the Metropolitan Government, MASZ and Hungary won the organization in December 2018. This will be the first IAAF World Cup in Central Europe, and Budapest will join the list of prestigious host cities – to date London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing, Helsinki and Doha have hosted the event.
She also stressed upon winning the bid to host the World Cup that this decision was a matter of trust. One of the largest sports federations in the world trusted us and believed that we were capable of organizing, and we fulfilled all our obligations. However, when they gave us the confidence, we had no experience in organizing such a large event and neither competition nor training venues were available in Budapest. “Hungary was already credible in the eyes of the IAAF, and since then it has been considered an even more reliable partner.”
Announce. He pointed out that there are many advantages to the capital being able to host one of the largest sporting events in the world in 2023, which is the largest ever organized by Hungary.
It is a great opportunity for Hungarian sports, it gives impetus to Hungarian athletics, it inspires children, motivates them to live a healthy lifestyle, and it is also urban development, from which one of the stigmas of Budapest has disappeared. The enormous interest puts Budapest on the world map,” he said, stressing that after six years of collective work, success will be Hungary’s, and the World Cup will bring the nation together. “Shared success strengthens us, Hungarians, in our self-esteem, our self-confidence and our cooperation.”
– said Balazs Forges.
A sporting event of this scale has never been organized in Hungary before
The IAAF World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and in 2023 it will be the biggest. In Hungary, we have never organized a sporting event that was accompanied by such great interest. The number of tickets sold will be over 300,000, and we will be close to a full house for several nights, if you want to purchase more tickets, hurry!
“More than 2,000 competitors come from more than 200 countries, and this kind of participation is only typical of the Olympics, no other world championship in any sport can do this,” said Balázs Forges, who reminded us. Spectators come from more than 100 countries, and those coming to the World Cup spend more than half a million nights in Hungary in Hungarian hotels. According to Sebastian Coe, the World Cup will be watched by more than a billion viewers on television.
This great interest is due to the fact that we hold the World Cup in the most valuable year before the Olympic Games, and that there has not been a world athletics competition, Olympics or World Cup in Europe for six years.
Balazs Forges said. He added that the number of world records could also be set in Budapest, where the newly developed Mondo track has been installed at the National Sports Centre, which may now be the fastest in the world – and it is no coincidence that many new Hungarian records and best results have been achieved. character in the national championship, which was also organized as a test competition. More than half a hundred athletes will represent Hungary, and every day of the World Championships you can support several Hungarian competitors.
Balázs Forges emphasized that the National Sports Center is 100 percent Hungarian, designed and built by Hungarians. It highlighted the work of architect Ferencs Marcel, who was selected anonymously by a professional jury in an open nationwide architectural competition. The World Cup will be held at the National Sports Center from August 19 to 27, and Hősök tere will host street running and walking competitions. All the important moments of the World Cup can be watched for free and live on M4 Sport.
(MTI / Featured image: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd)
