The 17th Intercampus Race

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) Intercampus Race was held on Sunday, March 15, gathering more than 1,500 runners and walkers, who completed the trajectory between the Getafe and Leganes campuses(10 and 5 kilometers, respectively). 

For yet another year, the high level of participation and the festive atmosphere characterized this run, celebrating its 17th year, and which according to the runners themselves, is one of the most highly-rated in the Madrid Region. 

The medal winners (in the upper photo) were:

All categories men’s classification:

1st place Diego Tamayo Monge 00:31:55
2nd place Samir Ait Boychamane 00:32:08
3rd place Francisco Javier de León 00:33:17

All categories women’s classification:
1st place Kaoutar Boulaid 00:34:20
2nd place Judith Sánchez Heras 00:40:16
3rd place Gabriela Raquel Barilla 00:42:27

The Getafe mayor, Juan Soler-Espiauba( first on the left in the photo), accompanied by the Vice-Chancellor of Students and University Life, María Luisa González-Cuéllar (third from the left),  was in charge of initialing the start of the race, while the University President-elect, Juan Romo (second from the left), presided over the medal and award ceremony which took place afterwards. 

Runners from UC3M, who have their own classification and are divided into three categories (faculty members and administrative staff under 34, veterans over 35, and students), registered a stand-out performance, led by UC3M student, Toni Joan Barcelço Munar, who came in sixth place, winning the gold medal in his category

UC3M sport and solidarity celebration

The Intercampus race is a sports challenge and an act of support and solidarity.  This year, the participants ran for the cause of Ebola.  The head of the School of Engineering, Daniel Segovia, received from the Vice-Chancellor of Equality and Cooperation, Rosario Ruiz Franco, the Challenge Intercampus trophy, awarded to the campus with the highest participation in the race.  In representation of the runners from the Leganes Campus, Daniel Segovia gave a donation of 3,000 euros to Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF)  and their project for their work in the areas affected by this disease. At present, according to the figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 23,969 cases of active Ebola. Of these, 23,914 are concentrated in  Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Running wasn’t the only way to support the cause.  UC3M together with MSF set up the “dorsal 0 Intercampus” initiatives, together with  a text-message campaign to collaborate in fighting against this illness, which has already claimed more than 10,000 lives, according to the the WHO.

Volunteers

In all of the past races, Intercampus has supported a variety of solidarity and support projects, such as the ecological recuperation of areas affected by the Prestige oil spill, education in Kenya and help for victims of diverse natural catastrophes, for example.  In all of them, the   support of volunteers is very important.  

This year, thanks to the collaboration of 200 volunteers (the majority of them UC3M students), the race has become an event of renown in the sports world, at the organizational level as well as for its services and its sponsors.  Because of this, the race organization also wanted to honor the volunteers by giving a commemorative plaque to the first volunteer and to the first one signing up for the race.  

Award for high school runners

In order to foment participation of young people in the run, each year, the organization awards a special trophy to the high school with the highest number of runners between the ages of 16 and 20, both male and female, passing the finish line.  This year the winning school was IES García Márquez.

The UC3M Intercampus run has as its main sponsor, the Corte Inglés, in addition to  Coca Cola, Grupoeducativo, Ibercaja  and Serviocio. The city halls of Getafe and Leganes also collaborated, along with a dozen of participants (Clevisa, Centro Médico Nenufar, Corposalud, Corricolari, Grupo Sfera Travel, Renfe, Runners’s, Skuik, SportLife,  and PuySonCar).

The classifications as well as the finish line video are available at the following page: www.uc3m.es/intercampus