11^th April 2009
16^th THE CHILDREN’S JAFFA MARATHON

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Belgrade, 9 April 2009
Children’s Jaffa Marathon at the Garden of Good Hope

Again this year, the children will herald the greatest running fete in the region, the 22nd Belgrade Banca Intesa Marathon.
Tomorrow, the traditional competition of Belgrade’s pre-schoolers, the popular Children’s Marathon, will be held at the Garden of Good Hope as the Belgrade Zoo is affectionately called. This year, the competition’s middle name will be Jaffa. Over 18,000 kids took part in the qualifications held at their kindergartens, while 150 fastest will compete in the final event, an overture to the big marathon race that will be held in Serbian capital on 18 April.
Inclusion of the children in this unique project boasts a fifteen-year tradition, while the number of little “marathoners” is impressive - more than 200,000 took part in the race. Dejan Nikolić, the Belgrade Marathon Ltd director, points put the social significance of the event:
- Our basic intention was to include the children in the programme “Let’s Start with Sport” which is organised under the auspices of the European Athletic Association. An early identification in spot is very beneficial socially, while the speed is one of the three physical attributes developed since the early youth. Our goal is to keep a significant percentage of the Children’s Jaffa Marathon’s participants in sport, and the least important things is whether that would be in athletics or not.
Vuk Bojović, director of the Belgrade Zoo, holds the young runners in such a high esteem that he has included them in the monograph on this Belgrade’s institution.
- When Dejan Nikolić suggested that we should stage a children’s race in the Zoo back in 1995, I instantly knew that that would be the real thing. We have managed to break world media blockage and triumph over some of the people here who did their best to discourage us. I am glad the interest in the race does not subside, and it would be good to include the children who don’t go to kindergartens into the qualifications – opined Vuk Bojović.
The title sponsor of the 16th Children’s Marathon is confectionary company Jaffa Crvenka, and the race is organised under the patronage of the Belgrade Council’s Secretariat for Social and Children’s Welfare. Admission to the Belgrade Zoo will be free for all the visitors from 10am on the day of the race. Qualification races will start on the famous course by the elephant’s cage at 11am, while the finals will be held at 12.30pm.