Balázs Fürjes, co-chairman of the organizing committee of the World Cup, called the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, which ended on Sunday, a global success of the collaboration, who announced that he will jointly nominate the volunteers involved in the organization with Sebastian Coe, the president of the WA, for the International Fair Play Award.

On Monday, the sports leader pointed out that the biggest sports event in Hungary's history has become a world success in every respect, which is supported by the numbers.

"Athletes from 195 countries took part in the World Cup, such universal participation in sports can only be achieved at the Summer Olympic Games, the World Championships of other sports cannot do this", he emphasized, and then mentioned that more than 2,200 athletes took part in the competitions, the coaches and team members his number was well over five thousand.

"During the World Cup, 2,500 Hungarian volunteers helped serve the fans and competitors, and help the World Cup to run successfully. Fans from all continents of the world, from more than 120 countries, came to Budapest," he concluded.

He emphasized that the number of tickets sold exceeded 400,000, which even the international association of the sport, WA, did not expect.

"During the nine days, the average number of viewers of the evening finals exceeded 95 percent saturation, the majority of the finals were sold out, and on the first day, at the qualifier of the hammer thrower Bence Halász, all the tickets were sold out already in the morning, this is unprecedented," he emphasized and called on the attention, that the television broadcasts were watched by more than 1 billion people worldwide for a significant amount of time.

He said that Hungary also benefited from the World Cup. He noted that all the guests, athletes, team members, official guests, fans, journalists and workers who came to Budapest spent more than half a million guest nights in Budapest hotels and spent several billion forints in Hungary.

"The World Cup brought the whole nation together, strengthened the self-esteem, self-confidence and belonging of the Hungarians. The secret of success was cooperation and teamwork," explained Balázs Fürjes, who believes that the success belongs to all of Hungary: everyone contributed their part.

"Volunteers, organizers, athletes, coaches, taxpayers, fans, representatives, city administration, representatives, head of state, government, big and small. As the President of the Republic, Katalin Novák, said at the opening of the World Cup, it is good that we are able to do and experience the World Cup in unity and agreement, he said.

Balázs Fürjes called it gratifying that even those mayors of Budapest who in 2019, after their election, did not want the World Cup, the greening of the brown zone, or the national athletics center, finally supported it, and confirmed their support during the World Cup.

The fact that Gergely Karácsony was there in the stadium during the opening and closing weekend has a message value, noted Balázs Fürjes.

The co-president touched on the fact that the hospitality and professionalism of Budapest and the Hungarians impressed the world.

"The volunteers especially impressed our foreign guests, who raved about them. They were 2,500 diplomats, ambassadors of Hungary and they performed extra, they showed the most beautiful face of Hungary to everyone," he praised them, adding that they will be nominated for the International Fair Play Award together with Sebastian Coe, the president of WA.

According to Jenő Kamuti, the president of the International Fair Play Committee, there is a good chance that they will receive the recognition, he said.

The Prime Minister also thanked the organizers and volunteers:

In addition to the volunteers, he also praised the Hungarian spectators, who once again showed that they understand and love sports. The fans gave the Hungarian athletes enormous encouragement, but not only the Hungarian athletes, but all the athletes and the atmosphere they created added a lot to the athletes' performance and the success of the WC.

"The meeting of the fans and the athletes, the Hungarian athletes, was captivating. I think this was expressed more than anything else by Attila Molnár's words, which have become a household word. The athlete from Ferencváros said after the 400-meter preliminaries, in which he ran the national record, "I didn't run the last hundred meters, but we Hungarians," said Balázs Fürjes, for whom one of the most memorable moments of the World Cup was when the fans showered the home athletes with overflowing love.

Balázs Fürjes said that the World Cup will be of great benefit to Hungary in the long term, it will give momentum to Hungarian athletics and inspire the children, who, according to him, will start playing athletics in large numbers from September. From now on, daily exercise and thus a healthy lifestyle were also popularized by the World Cup.

It was also extremely useful for the capital city, because thanks to urban development, the place of rust was replaced by green, and from now on, people can once again take possession of the Danube bank of Ferencváros.

"Teamwork was the key to global success. Acknowledgment goes to the Hungarian Athletics Association, as well as State Secretary for Sports Ádám Schmidt, who heads the organizing committee, and Balázs Németh, who manages the organizing company. They became the finishers of the six-year marathon relay, they took over the baton a year ago and sprinted through the last year. Their leadership performance was essential for the World Cup to become a global success. Hats off and thanks to everyone who helped or supported. It seems that now we have really managed to show our best faces to each other and to the world, and if we did it now, I hope we will do it another time," he said.

 

MTI