World Athletics Championships Bringing Top Diplomatic Guests

The World Athletics Championships in Budapest will bring with it a diplomatic summit, with several leaders arriving for a working visit, including the Presidents of Serbia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Emir of Qatar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Friday, reports Hirado.hu.

At an extraordinary press conference, the Minister said it was a great joint success of all Hungarians that Budapest would be the venue for one of the world’s biggest sporting events in dignified conditions thanks to environmentally friendly, sustainable, large-scale sports infrastructure developments. He stressed that

the event is particularly important today, when in the midst of conflicts and wars, sport can be a pathway to cooperation, and this time the celebration of the links between nations can take place in Hungary.

Apart from the politicians already mentioned, the President of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as former Czech, Austrian and Slovenian prime ministers will arrive in Hungary in the coming days.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has also been in Hungary for several days. He was elected President of the international federation for another four-year term at the Congress held in the Hungarian capital on Thursday, reports Nemzeti Sport.

The former British middle distance runner, a two-time Olympic champion, told public television channel M1 that the local organizing committee is doing an excellent job.

This is one of the best local organizing committees we have ever worked with. They are very cooperative, very hard-working and ambitious,”

he highlighted.

The WA President said that what he liked a lot was the attitude and behavior of the locals, which in every way pointed to an important heritage. Ultimately, he emphasized, it is the athletes who are in the driving seat, and fortunately they are in great shape, as the recent world records show.

All the conditions are there for a good world championship, I am rooting for a good one, the signs are certainly good,

he concluded.

The main venue, the National Athletics Center is easily accessible from all parts of the city, it is perfectly located for public transport, but there is no parking space in the vicinity, the CEO of Budapest 2023 Zrt., the organizer of the World Athletics Championships, pointed out at a press conference on Thursday.

Balázs Németh reminded that organizing the world’s third biggest sporting event in a new facility is not easy and there may be some disruptions in the first days as athletes and fans get used to the National Athletics Center.

The main thing is that it is not worth going by car, it is practically impossible to find a parking space in the area, but there are good alternatives.

The CEO of the organizer body emphasized that

it is worth arriving at least two hours before the first event starts, as there will be a number of programs and fan zones in the Stadium Park.

As for the lack of parking, Balázs Németh said: “We deliberately did not asphalt the Danube bank because the World Championships will give Budapest a new leisure park, not a huge concrete area”.

In addition, taxi drivers will also be subject to increased scrutiny by the Budapest government office during the World Athletics Championships, reports Világgazdaság. The government’s traffic control department will be carrying out a comprehensive official control together with the Budapest Transport Center and the Budapest Police Headquarters.

They said that the aim of the checks on taxi drivers is “to guarantee passenger safety and the high quality of domestic passenger transport”. During the inspections, authorities will check the licenses of taxi companies and drivers, the technical condition of vehicles, and the transparency of fares and billing to increase passenger safety, satisfaction and the proportion of law-abiding businesses.

Featured photo via MTI/Illyés Tibor