Children’s Marathon Traditionally Held at the Belgrade Zoo

The MiniMini Plazma Children’s Marathon will traditionally take place on Saturday at 10 AM at the Belgrade Zoo.

This will be the final competition for the winners of races held in preschools, which involved more than 15,000 girls and boys. A total of 150 of the fastest kids will compete in 12 qualifying races on the famous track around the elephant enclosure. The winners of the qualifiers will race for the championship title in the 230-meter final.

Darko Habuš, Director of the Belgrade Marathon, spoke about the technical details as well as the mission behind the MiniMini Plazma Children’s Marathon.

“The race will traditionally be opened by children with disabilities, followed by the preschoolers running their qualifying races. Our mission is to teach kids the right values, to get them involved in sports, and to help them learn through sports what it means to love and grow. Not all of them will become future track athletes—some will be actors, basketball players, or soccer players—but most importantly, they’ll grow up to be good people,” said Habuš.

The head of the Belgrade Marathon emphasized the collaboration with city institutions in organizing this event.

“I’m glad we have a good partnership with all the institutions, because only as a team can we do things the right way. This time, our main event—the Belgrade Marathon—served as a sort of prelude to the Children’s Marathon. We’re approaching some big milestones: the 30th Children’s Marathon, the 40th Belgrade Marathon, and the 90th anniversary of the Zoo. The Belgrade Zoo has been hosting the Children’s Marathon for nearly 30 years. Since the event began in 1993, almost 450,000 children have taken part. That alone shows how significant this event truly is. Everyone is welcome this Saturday to help us send a beautiful postcard from Belgrade,” he said.

Srboljub Aleksić, Director of the Zoo, emphasized the great significance of the Children’s Marathon.

“This is perhaps the most beautiful and most meaningful event held at the Zoo. I hope the weather will be on our side and that we’ll crown new champions in the race around the elephant enclosure. I believe that at the next anniversary race, we’ll also have new judges—instead of our elephant Twiggy, who passed away two years ago and was the symbol of this event, we hope to welcome new elephants,” Aleksić said, and then added:

“The winner of the Children’s Marathon in 2010 was our famous basketball player, national team member, and NBA player for the Miami Heat—Nikola Jović. This is a great example of how children from the Belgrade Zoo and the Children’s Marathon follow in the footsteps of champions. We hope that there will be more and more of them in the coming years,” he added.

Aleksandra Čamagić, the city secretary for education, emphasized, “This is another opportunity to show how healthy and important it is for children to engage in sports,” while Vesna Zirić from the City Secretariat for Sports and Youth added, “Some of these children running today will surely find their way to an athletics club.”

This year, the Belgrade Marathon has established a partnership with the company Bambi, making MiniMini Plazma the title sponsor of the Children’s Marathon.