At a evening before the 17th Shanghai International was held, Li Yuyi, President of the Shanghai Sports Federation, representing the organizing committee Shanghai International Marathon, and Markus Hermann, Member of the Advisory Board of Prague International Marathon, have signed a comprehensive Letter of Cooperation between the two organizations. The importance of signing this agreement was underlined by the presence Mr. Xue Chao, Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, and Mr. Michal Kuzmiak, Consul General of the Czech Republic in Shanghai.
The agreement includes the exchange of know in the technical, marketing, and international promotion areas as well as cooperation regarding elite runners. Both sides intend to support the attendance of runners from their country at either race.
‘World class distance races do not only bring together people from all over the world who share the idea of peaceful competition and healthy live-styles, they also enhance the image of the hosting cities. We look forward to welcoming the delegation from Shanghai at our Volkswagen Prague Marathon, which will take place on 12 May 2013’,- said Markus Hermann. Both Prague and Shanghai are very attractive tourist destinations due to their historical and cultural heritage.
‘We are very pleased to have signed this cooperation agreement with Shanghai. This is another milestone in developing closer ties between China and the Czech Republic and to promote the cooperation on the wonderful topic of mass distance running’ said Michal Kuzmiak.
The booth of Prague International Marathon at the Shanghai Marathon Expo found a lot of interest among the Expo visitors that included runners from 76 nations.
The 17th Shanghai Marathon featured a number of new records, first, with 18,000 competitive and 12,000 non-competitive runners the highest attendance in history. This was also due to the new course that leads now through some of the historical and most scenic areas of the 25 million metropolis. Also, both the men’s and women’s course record were broken.
Both organizations are members of the Association of International Marathons, AIMS.