The businessman Juan Roig, president of Mercadona but also of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation that organizes and sponsors the Valencia Marathon, promised this Sunday one million euros for the athlete who breaks the marathon world record in this event.
Roig made this announcement accompanied by Paco Borao, director of the Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon, at the end of this 2023 edition in which Sisay Lemma was the winner and broke the race record by completing it in 2:01:48. The time is just over a minute above the time set by Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago this year when he set a time of 2:00:35, which is the current record.
“We want to announce that when the world record is broken, we will give one million euros, if it is done in Valencia. We will give half a million to Paco (Borao) and half a million to the one who wins, because one of our hopes is that the world record will be broken. record in Valencia,” Roig noted with a laugh.
In this edition, the organization offered 250,000 euros for whoever broke the world record, in both the men’s and women’s categories. The businessman was convinced that one day this record will be broken in this test, although he said that he does not know when it will happen. “But we will fight for it,” he assured.
Roig highlighted how the test has been integrated in the city, in the Valencian Community and in Spain. “We wanted it to be the most important event in the city after the Fallas and we are satisfied with that. There are no recommended ones here, you can see the culture of effort, here you fight against yourself and it is beautiful.”
Roig praised the vision of the SD Correcaminos that promoted the test in the eighties and with which his organization shares and said that they are close to the test, which has a budget of about 6.5 million, being “one hundred percent sustainable “.