Athletic Club RUNNING
RUNNING is a sports club founded in November 2012 in Belgrade dedicated to running, training & sports event organization; especially it is dedicated to the activities promoting innovative synergies between the field of sports and the fields of health, education, training and youth. Our unique club is the first running club in Serbia which has the scope to make sports more approachable and closer to Serbian young people in an entertaining and modern way.
We like to say that sport should be available, accessible and affordable for everyone especially for the children. It is not a privilege of professional athletes! Sport means mental and body health, entertainment, happiness and joy that should be developed from the earliest stages in one’s life- as a favorite daily obligation and lifestyle!
With its awareness-raising activities of the value of sports and physical activity in relation to the personal, social and professional development of individuals our club is dedicated to children and young adults.
In 2013. we have established free of charge “Kids school of RUNNING” attended by more than 80 children age 6-10. The program is free of charge for all the children on the territory of the City of Belgrade. We also organise programs for teenagers and young adults called 10RUNNING. These programs are basically based on coach training sessions, and are followed by educational and workshop sessions with nutritionists and psychologists, related to nutrition and everyday habits and life style. We intend to follow, learn and apply internationally recognized best practices and further develop and modernize our programs. Also we intend to keep the humanitarian character of all our activities. Every year, by running at the Belgrade marathon races, we fundraise for BELhospice: centre for palliative care and palliative medicine which is the only charity organisation in Serbia dedicated to the provision of palliative care for terminally ill cancer patients. from its foundation RUNNING also belongs to the organizational board of the only and the first obstacle race in Serbia “Kosutnjak Challenge Race” and “Kosutnjak Challenge Race Junior”. Every year Kosutnjak Challenge Race becomes more and more popular which resulted in triple number of participants in 2014. As a recreational type of a race this is the number one race in Serbia by popularity and visibility among wider audiences.
International cooperation
We intend to develop strong ties with international sports and running communities especially race organizers around the Europe, and foster cooperation which will contribute to our goals achievement and their realization. From 2013. we have established and developed relations with the Budapest Half Marathon, Roma Ostia and Ljubljana halfmarathon organisers which resulted in significant prac eparticipation discounts for all the Serbia runners and the record number of runners from Serbia participating in these events. International support with mutually developed activities are crucial for engaging young people in Serbia.
Partnership
RUNNING programs are fully or partly supported by the Belgrade Municipality Savski Venac and its youth cultural and sports center Majdan. Based on our partnership, the premises of our club are based within Majdan’s modern and fully equipped premises. This model of cooperation between our sports club and an important public entity enabled larger networking and higher impact among the local community in an easy and influential way. We identify together the best practices in our field, then develop and apply activities to increase the competencies of key influencers in the field of sport, and to develop monitoring and benchmarking of indicators, notably as regards to the promotion of ethical behaviors and codes of conduct among sports people. In future we will be focused on joint fundraising in order to be able to continue and further develop our programs, conferences, seminars, meetings, events and other awareness-raising actions.