This weekend, Shanghai will usher in another distinctive district-level road running landscape event: on April 14, the 2024 Huangpu Marathon will start at the Bund Jinniu Square. It is also the first marathon event in Asia that deeply integrates "roller skating" and "road running".
As one of the few "all-marathon" events in Shanghai, the 2024 Huangpu Marathon integrates resources of "roller skating" and "marathon", two seemingly unrelated sports, to promote the urban cultural highlights of Huangpu District, and bring a new thinking to the characteristics of Shanghai's city-level road running events.
Four competitions in one, focusing on integration and innovation
The 2024 Huangpu Marathon is an international event and the first roller skating marathon to be held in the megacity of Shanghai. The event is composed of four events, including the International Roller Skating Marathon Tour (Shanghai Station), the China Roller Skating Marathon Open (Shanghai Station), the Shanghai Enterprise Quarter Marathon, and the Huangpu Marathon Online Race, presenting the excitement of the deep integration of "roller skating" and "road running", and the scale of participation is expected to reach 5,000 people. On the day of the race, the roller skaters set off first, followed by the road runners, and the two camps of competitors shared a track.
The International Roller Skating Marathon Tour (Shanghai Station) and the China Roller Skating Marathon Open (Shanghai Station) belong to the "Roller Skating Event". Among them, the former is the key event promoted by the World Roller Skating Federation this year, and it is also the first stop of the 6 global tours, with nearly 300 Chinese and foreign professional roller skaters participating, and the highest prize money for the champion of the participating group is 10,000 US dollars. Both events are expected to feature 2,000 roller skaters from more than 20 countries and regions in the full, half and quarter marathons. The event will feature the Beijing Winter Olympics speed skating champion and world champion in speed skating, Belgium's ice roller amphibious star Barter Swains, and the 14th National Games speed skating double gold medalist Zang Yinglu, a Huangpu speed skater and other well-known athletes, will also make their debuts.
The Shanghai Enterprise Quarter Marathon is a "road running event", with 3,000 participants. In response to the call of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government to "create a business environment" and "create a global premiere for various industries", Huangpu District has specially created a road running event in the form of enterprise team participation, mainly for the world's top 500 enterprises in China, well-known enterprises in the industry and well-known enterprises in Huangpu District. The 2024 Huangpu Marathon Online Race is an organizing committee that actively expands online and offline channels, and joins hands with Alipay Sports to create a road running party that can be participated by all people, so that road running enthusiasts can participate in the race anytime and anywhere, and broaden the radiation coverage of the event to a greater extent.
Overall, this is the first time in Asia that roller skating and road running are deeply integrated, and it is also the first time that the "roller skating marathon" jointly held online and offline has been realized, and it is also the first time that professional roller skating athletes and ordinary white-collar workers in Shanghai have jointly participated in the corporate four-minute marathon. A veteran road runner commented: "This is a four-in-one road running event, which can be said to be a roller skating event or a marathon event. You've got me, I've got you – of course, it might feel a little new or even special for traditional marathon enthusiasts. ”
City marketing, showing the bright color of Huangpu
As a typical form of urban modernization, large-scale sports events not only integrate urban resources, expand urban space, and promote urban transformation, but also show the image of the city to the world and interpret the spirit of the city. In the current marathon boom, how to better "recommend the city by taking advantage of the horse" is a new topic faced by the major host cities and organizers.
There is a saying that a marathon is a city's all-out effort. The subtleties of the course design contain the university question of spreading the image of the city, taking the Huangpu Marathon as an example, the whole track shows the charm of the city along the way. The race will start at 7 a.m. on April 14 at the Bund Taurus Square, with roller skaters starting first, followed by road runners. The finish point of the full marathon and half marathon is located at No. 68 Longhua East Road, and the end point of the roller skating quarter and road run is at the World Expo Museum. From the start to the finish line, the two races share a track, and after the quarter-marathon finish, the full marathon and half marathon skaters will compete in a large loop around the riverside area. The event will pass through the Bund, the Old Town, Huaihai Middle Road, the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China and other landmark landscapes with Shanghai characteristics, and use the event as a window to fully demonstrate the profound urban cultural charm and vigorous sports spirit of Shanghai and Huangpu District, and present the style of the "World Meeting Room" in an all-round way.
The 2024 Huangpu Marathon will feature roller skating and play more of the role of the "appetizer" and "vanguard" of major international sports events in the region - from May 16 to 19, the Paris Olympic Qualification Series Shanghai will be held in Huangpu Riverside (related link), nearly 500 of the world's top athletes from all over the world will gather in Shanghai to compete for Olympic tickets in four events: BMX, skateboarding, break dancing and rock climbing. The Huangpu Marathon and the upcoming Paris Olympic Qualification Series will accumulate abundant resources for the development of fashion sports in Huangpu, and will also provide a new bright color for Shanghai to build an international sports capital and accelerate the construction of a world-famous sports city.
Create characteristics and develop the thinking of organizing the competition
Huangpu District has created a deep integration of "roller skating" and "road running", and has a real confidence - Huangpu District has a deep foundation in roller skating.
Roller skating is loved and sought after by young people all over the world, with more than 100 million young people participating in China alone. In Shanghai, there is the best "roller skating soil" in the country: at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, the Chinese pair Zhang Hao and Zhu Siyi won the mixed freestyle roller skating men's and women's double freestyle pile wrapping championship with zero penalty points (related link), which is the first gold medal in the history of freestyle roller skating in the history of the Asian Games, and it is also the fruitful result of Huangpu District's decades of meticulous construction of "one district, one product" characteristic project.
Huangpu District is the birthplace of Shanghai's "roller skating rink", and roller skating is a "one district, one product" project that Huangpu has carefully built in the past 40 years. Shanghai has a national figure skating team training base, freestyle training base, etc., both government investment and administrative incentives, which have greatly improved the level of Shanghai roller skating training, competitions, scientific research and other aspects, and played a positive role in promoting the popularization and improvement of China's roller skating sports. Since 2003, Huangpu District has made great efforts to build a number of international top roller skating event brands, and at the same time, it has gradually formed a perfect closed loop for the ecological development of the roller skating industry around the events. It is expected that the International Roller Skating Marathon Tour (Shanghai Station) and the China Roller Skating Marathon Open (Shanghai Station) will also further promote the roller skating project and create a new sports increment for regional development and construction.
In addition to polishing the regional sports brand and creating the integration of culture, sports, business and tourism, the biggest highlight of the 2024 Huangpu Marathon is that it brings new ideas for integrated development to the district-level marathon in Shanghai. Shanghai has a total of 16 districts, of which 13 districts hold road running events such as full marathon and half marathon every year, including 2 full marathons and 11 half marathons. In contrast, the "roller skating" + "road running" mode of the Huangpu Marathon has more distinctive characteristics, with bigger steps and more jumping thinking in the integration and innovation.
Photo: Shanghai Huangpu, IOC, Wang Jiabin