90-year-old Slovakian star gets ready for MOVE Week

28/08/2014 by Rachel Payne

MOVE Week welcomes all participants – young and old – and one of Slovakia’s oldest stars is getting ready to shine on 5 October, the final day of MOVE Week 2014.

If you’re imagining a little old lady or man pulling on their running socks, well, you’re almost right. The 90-year-old in question does have something to do with running, but it is not a person. It is an event: the Kosice Peace Marathon, Europe’s oldest marathon and the second-oldest in the world, which turns 90 this year.

Around 9000 runners are expected to take part, and Peter Bakalár from P. J. Safarik University in Kosice has secured a deal that will make the marathon a flagship MOVE Week event.

Bakalár is excited about the partnership, which will see MOVE Week being promoted through the Marathon’s social media channels and a special press conference on the day: “The Marathon is a ‘big thing’ in Kosice and Slovakia,” he says.

“Establishing a good partnership between MOVE Week and the Kosice Peace Marathon broadens our opportunities to promote regular physical activity and sport in Slovakia. If you want to enter yourself in the marathon – whether it’s the full marathon, half or even the 5km event – you have to start to move more regularly and that’s the goal for both initiatives!”