The 28^th edition of the Da Nang Newspaper Road Races will take place at the Tien Son Sport Arena on April 12, announced at the press conference held in the city on Monday.

Runners competed in the Da Nang Newspaper Road Races 2024. Photo: PHI NONG

Diversified competition categories

The tournament is jointly organised by the Da Nang Newspaper, the municipal Department of Culture and Sports, the city’s Military Command, the local Department of Public Security, and the Department of Education and Training.

It aims to celebrate the 95^th founding anniversary of the Da Nang Party Committee (March 28, 1930 - March 28, 2025), the 50^th anniversary of the Liberation of Da Nang (March 29, 1975 - March 29, 2025), and the 50^th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day (April 30, 1975 - April 30, 2025).

The opening ceremony and the competition contents of the tournament will be broadcast live on the Da Nang Radio and Television Station.

The event is expected to attract athletes from agencies, units, localities, and armed units based in the city, and professional athlete delegations from provinces and cities across the country.

Athletes will compete in individual, team, and group events, with distances of 1.5km, 2km, 3km, 4km, 5km, and 7km; as well as compete in categories of junior high school, senior high school, agencies, enterprises, schools, amateur athletes, districts, militia force (wards, communes), self-defense force, enterprises, armed forces, and professional athletes. Notably, this year’s tournament will add a 10km event for free runners.

The organisation of a variety of competitions and groups offers good opportunities for many athletes to participate, making the Da Nang Newspaper Road Races become a festival for the running community.

The organisers will present medals and flags to athletes and units with high achievements, as well as award certificates to participating runners, which is their recognition and encouragement for athletes who contributed to the success of the tournament.

Meaningful and prestigious tournament

The Da Nang Newspaper Road Races is one of the large-scale sports tournaments, and is also a rare grassroots tournament of the city that has been maintained over the past 28 years. Before each season, participating units and localities plan to select excellent athletes for the team.

The success of each organisation helps the tournament affirm its reputation. Both professional and amateur athletes have a high spirit of determination and own constantly improved performances. The competitions are fierce, attractive and full of interesting surprises. Thanks to that, the tournament contributes to promoting the development of the physical training movement among all classes of people, cadres, civil servants, employees, workers, students, cadres and soldiers of the armed forces in the city.

At the same time, the tournament provides a good chance for many talented athletes of high-performance sports in the city and other localities to exchange, compete, and develop their expertise. This is an important foundation for the city to continue to affirm the strength of athletics in the national and international top competitions.

According to Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Culture and Sports Nguyen Trong Thao, last year’s tournament attracted nearly 900 runners from 85 government agencies and departments, senior high schools, junior colleges, universities and armed forces across the city. This year’s tournament is expected to see a significant increase in the number of runners due to the addition of the 10km event.

To continue to make the running season successful, the municipal Department of Culture and Sports will provide professional support to the Da Nang Newspaper in the preparation and organisation work. The upgrade of the campus of the Tien Son Sports Arena is expected to be completed by the end of March. Once completed, this will be an ideal competition venue for athletes, he informed.

In her concluding speech at the press conference, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Da Nang Newspaper Tran Thi Thu Thuy thanked the support and effective coordination of relevant agencies and units in the preparation for the tournament.

She added that the Da Nang Newspaper Road Races is a meaningful and prestigious tournament. The organisers will try to maintain the organization of the tournament annually, expand the scale, and improve professionalism in a bid to meet the increasing competition needs of athletes.

Reporting by PHI NONG - Translating by M.DUNG