The competition will take place this Saturday, June 1st, at the Ciudad del Deportes in the capital of the Bajo/Baix Cinca region.
This year's edition, to be held next Saturday, will feature the participation of Olympic athlete María José Poves, who competed in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games. In addition, the sporting event incorporates race walking into its program.
Around 200 athletes will compete in the Fraga City Meeting, which celebrates its eighth edition this Saturday. This event, presented at a press conference this Tuesday and already a classic in Fraga and Aragon athletics, will feature local athletes, athletes from our autonomous community, and also from other Spanish regions. New this year is the addition of race walking in the 3.000 and 5.000 meters, and will include promising young race walkers as well as Olympic athlete María José Poves, who competed in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games.
The competition will take place next Saturday, June 1st, starting at 17:00 PM at the Sports Complex, attracting a large number of visitors to the capital of the Bajo Cinca region. “Last year it brought together more than 200 athletes who came accompanied by their clubs, families, friends, and so on… which means that these tourists, drawn by the sport, get to know our city and spend money in our businesses,” explained the mayor of Fraga, Ignacio Gramún, who attended the press conference along with the Councilor for Sports, David Casanova, and the president of CA Fraga-Bajo Cinca, Juan Carlos Longán.
In this regard, Gramún thanked the Fraga-Bajo Cinca Athletics Club for “organizing these types of events” and insisted that “you have the full support of this City Council and this governing team.”
In the same vein, Casanova stated that “this City Council and this Sports Department stand with the clubs in our city, supporting them so they can organize important events that ultimately boost their specific sport and also help us to revitalize the city.”
“We are going to see some very spectacular, very fast, exciting races. You'll see athletes who are really very fast, and it's something worth seeing, so it could be a lot of fun to come to the athletics track this Saturday afternoon,” the councilor encouraged.
For his part, Longán commented that, after eight years, the Fraga City Meeting has become a “well-established event on the national calendar.” “Making it a Level 2 national event was a great decision, because this year we no longer have just athletes from Aragon and Catalonia, but also athletes from Madrid, Cantabria, Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha…,” explained the club president.
“People wait until the last minute to register; we have 106 registered so far, but we’re sure we’ll be close to 200,” he predicted, indicating that the Meeting “is not an event that requires concentrating the largest number of athletes, but rather that enough athletes come so that the events are competitive and exciting, and so that the number of athletes doesn’t make us finish at midnight.”
Regarding María José Poves' participation, Longán commented that "a veteran athlete will be competing, but she is possibly one of the best athletes in Aragon." "A two-time Olympian, world champion in race walking in 2012, and four-time Spanish champion in the 20km race walk and once in the 10km."
Regarding the participation of local athletes, this year's notable absences include Elena Guiu, Elena Daniel, and Javi Cruz; the first two due to injury and the third due to his studies. Other athletes who will be competing include Nacho Orús, Jaume Royes, Mariona Salamó, and Álex Margalló.
