About 1,500 Cuban and foreign runners this Sunday staged an unprecedented virtual race from their homes where they remain confined by the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the suspension of the half marathon scheduled for this date in the tourist resort of Varadero.
Olympic champions and sports glories of the island such as high jumper Javier Sotomayor, sprinters Alberto Juantorena and Ana Fidelia Quirot, as well as javelin thrower María Caridad Colón and hammer thrower Yipsi Moreno joined the initiative along with personalities of culture and sports lovers.
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After the start at ten in the morning through the national radio station Radio Reloj and Tele Rebelde TV channel, the participants in the virtual race ran or jogged between one and three kilometers, according to the spaces available in their residences.
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Promoted by the Cuban Track-and-Field Federation chaired by Alberto Juantorena, the call for this virtual race was made several days ago by the organizers of the Varadero Half Marathon, who encouraged participants to run, jog or simply move around in their homes.
“It will help us to be better prepared physically to meet social isolation, with the responsibility of cutting the chain of contagion of the new coronavirus, and of contributing together to overcome this pandemic that has wrecked so much havoc in the world,” wrote Juantorena in his Facebook profile.
The only requirement of the call to join the project was to join the page created for this first version of the race at home and make official the distance to be run.
The objective of the initiative is to demonstrate that the healthy practice of physical exercise is a good option in current times, very difficult due to the ravages of COVID-19, said its promoters.
