19th Belgrade Banca Intesa Marathon

Banca Intesa Beograd,  the member of the Banca Intesa Banking Group, the largest one in Italy and one of the most powerful in Europe notably active in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, shall be the general sponsor of the prestigeous 19th Belgrade Banca Intesa Marathon that will be held on April 22nd.

The this-year’s prize fund has been increased, so that the winner in the male competition will be awarded 8.000 euro, and in the female 6.000 euro. The awards for the positions between 2 and 6 are 5.000, 3.000, 2000, 1.500 and 1.000 euro for men, i.e. 4.000, 2.500, 1.500 and 1.000 for women. The plan is to bridge the gap in the quality of male and female competitors in the next three years in order to increase the prize fund for the female competitors.

„With respect to the fact that the reputation of this event exceeds the boundaries of our country, that it is well known in the world and that it is a mass sport event which is family-oriented and therefore in line with the business policy of Banca Intesa, the cooperation on this project is quite logical“ – said Ms. Draginja Đurić, the CEO of the Bank at the press conference held on March 10th adding that the bank actively participated in humanitarian campaings, supported projects referring to the development of culture, art, sport as well as all other activities that assist in the correct guidance of young people. „In that sense Banca Intesa Beograd is very pleased to finance events that include also humanitarian activities and projects“ – stressed Draginja Đurić.

This year the „19th Belgrade Banca Intesa Marathon“ will have a humanitarian point, too and this time devoted to the Unicef campaign „School without violence“. The key-link in this campaign is our celebrated basketball player Aleksandar Đorđević, who is the Chairman of the Management Board of the „Belgrade Marathon“ and the Ambassador of Unicef for Serbia & Montenegro. He addressed the journalists gathered at the conference by means of a „tele-bridge“ established with Milan where our ex-National Team Player is engaged as a coach of „Armani Jeans“. Đorđević expressed his pleasure because of the new sponsorship and estimated that Banca Intesa „is a reliable leader that will contribute to the quality of the marathon by raising it on a higher level“.

Banca Intesa Beograd wants to support and assist on long terms in the organization of the most famous domestic marathon, which from the very beginning was only positively estimated and commented and which, as an event having an international license, represents our country and our organizational capabilities in the best way in the world. Exactly the cooperation of the strongest ones – the leading banking group and one of the leading sport events in the country, guarantee an excellent organization, realization and first-class experience for all participants, professional and amateur admirers of this sport. In this way Banca Intesa wanted to bring the spirit of the large capital cities of the world to our country and bring our country closer together to the developed world in this field.  

The manager of the „Belgrade Marathon“ Mr. Dejan Nikolić stated at the press conference that he was very glad because of that cooperation hoping that the marathon would become one of the „longterm Intesa Hits“. He also stressed that in his opinion the sponsorship of Banca Intesa would result in the improvement of the Belgrad marathon in the long run.
http://www.bgdmarathon.org