CM joins Running World Cup

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo will join over 200 fellow runners in this week’s qualifier stage of the Running World Cup.

In doing so he will help Team Gibraltar captain, Jessy Franco, take Gibraltar to the next stage of the Vitality Running World Cup.

Mr Picardo has in the past tweeted about his battle with the incline and speed features of his treadmill, now he plans on taking that battle to the roads and footpaths of the Rock.

The Running World Cup will see people from all around the globe sign up to be counted as running from that country and run in a bid to qualify through each stage.

The minimum requirement is to run three kilometres in 30 minutes. Those who sign up under the Gibraltar flag will form part of the Smaller European Nations.

The initial qualifying stage takes place during March 5 to 11 and the score for each country or in the Rock’s case for the Smaller European Nations will be calculated by taking the number of qualifying kilometres ran divided by the population of the country and the smartphone penetration of that country.

An event, organised by the local Vitality Running World Cup team, to kick off the qualifying stage will be held at 5.30pm on Thursday at Commonwealth Park.

“The aim is to have as many people running and logging their runs in the Running World Cup app as possible,” said event organiser Gino Jimenez.

“Les McKee from Team Gibraltar and other volunteers will be there to assist with sign ups and syncing of apps.”

“After the first 3km run, Team Gibraltar participants can run as much as they want or can. Just log all runs on a connected device and sync it with the Running World Cup App,” he added.

In addition to the Thursday evening event, organisers have arranged for the track at Victoria Stadium to be free for Team Gibraltar runners. This starts at 4pm on Wednesday March 11.

Corre Libre La Linea hosts a 5km Saturday morning timed run and is hosting a special Team Gibraltar event this Saturday encouraging all Team Gibraltar runners to come along and log their runs.

“If you can’t make the Team Gibraltar events, don’t worry as every run counts,” said Mr McKee.

“So run anytime, anywhere between 5 and 11 March and you will be able to call yourself a Team Gibraltar World Cup runner,” he added.

It is free to register for the Vitality Running World Cup, although kit can be bought it is not essential and in fact organisers encourage runners to wear red and white.

“Like National Day but in trainers,” said an organiser.

“It’s by the people, for the people. A healthier Gibraltar, a community spirit all working towards a common goal.”