The Semmelweis University, in close cooperation with the Hungarian University Sports Federation (HUSF) and the Budapest Athletic Federation organized the 14th edition of “The Way of Knowledge” university halfmarathon event in Budapest, the one and only university street running event held in the Hungarian capital. It was organized on November 9th, 2014, on a sunny Sunday in excellent running weather, exceptional in Budapest for the month of November.  

Around 1250 participants took part in the run; out of them 480 participated in the “Academic 6” run. The number of athletes bet the last year’s record; almost twice as many people crossed the finish line than one year earlier. Over 850 participants were registered during the pre-application period and almost another 400 joined on the day of the race. Besides the Hungarian participants – thanks to the EUSA patronage and the invitations sent to several foreign universities – remarkable number of foreign students took part from different countries, mainly from Austria, France, Germany, and Slovakia.



The run in 2014 has improved in different ways relative to the earlier years. There were more sponsors for this race than in the previous years. It meant that the organizers had the possibility to provide more assignments and awards as motivation. It was an advantage to be kept for the next years, too. The sponsors presented their prizes personally, a fact showing that this event was important for them, recognizing the satisfactory high level of organization. For first time in the history of the event a medallion was given to each those, who crossed the finish line. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new tradition connected with this event.



Amoung the VIP guests the organizers welcomed dr. Istvan Simicsko, Minister of State for Sports, dr. Agoston Szel, Rector of the Semmelweis University, dr. Laszlo Lovasz, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Some of the VIP guests, namely Mr Simicsko and Mr Szel also completed the shorter distance, the 6 km-long “Academic 6” run. In addition, some well-known athletes also took part in the race, like Ms Leila Gyenesel, modern pentathlon world champion.



An official warm-up for all participants was held by the reputed Hungarian aerobic trainer, Mr Daniel Dobrovszki. During the Opening Ceremony short salutes were held by dr. Gyorgy Meszaros, Director of Semmelweis University, the main organizer of the event, Prof. dr. Agoston Szel, dr. Istvan Simicsko and HUSF President Prof. dr. Adam Kiss. After the national anthem of Hungary, the participants crossed the start line at 11am.

Before the event, on October 20th a press conference was held with the participation of media representatives. The patrons and VIP guests gave remarkable positive interviews both before and after the race to the representatives of the media. The event had a positive feedback in the press; the national TV, as well as some commercial TV channels and radios broadcasted interviews, and several articles appeared in different newspapers.



For more information and results, please see the official website of the event at www.tudasutja.hu.