The primary focus of the Green Triathlon® Team Relay Event was to raise awareness and understandings of the interrelation of athletics and environmental protection, while proactively involving competitors, spectators, contributors and local and international media. Reducing the event’s waste products, ensuring recycling through separate waste collections, and organising a Green Expo are some of the examples.

Several well known Hungarian athletes had been appointed as Green Ambassadors to help the initiative gain awareness among the public. Zsolt Erdei, a former boxing world champion, Kinga Bóta, an Olympic silver medallist in kayaking, and Gábor Balogh, an Olympic silver medallist in modern pentathlon, planted a commemorative Green Triathlon tree at the Kopaszi-gát Race Center in April. Hungarian triathlon legend, Péter Kropkó, was also a Green Ambassador. The Hungarian Olympic Committe’s “Irány a zöld!” (Let’s head to the green!) programme further encouraged Olympians to support Green initiatives.

A Green Triathlon® Team Relay team was consisting of three persons, each one completing one leg of the race only. A standard triathlon is made up of a swim, followed by a cycle ride, followed by a run. However, due to the low water temperature of the River Danube the Green Triathlon® was turned into a duathlon of 2 km run, 8 km cycle ride and 2 km run again.

InterConti Green Team capturing the 5th place in the Mixed Team race

Staff members of the InterContinental Budapest took up this exceptional green initiative with unprecedented enthusiasm and actually participated with two teams in the Green Triathlon Team Relay Event, which was scheduled for September 8th.

Among the Mixed Team Relay the InterConti Green Team of Anna Mátyus, Róbert Zelnik and Tibor Pados captured a noble position of number 5 out of 20 by completed the 12 km course in 35 minutes 32 seconds. The InterContinental “Csirkefogók” (The Scoundrels) Team of Mihály Szabó, András Minda és Zoltán Szűcs finished 9th out of 21 Men’s Relay Teams with a total elapsed time of 37.47 minutes.

General Manager of InterContinental Budapest, Mathieu van Alphen, said after the championship:
“The Green Triathlon® is a great initiative. I am very proud of our colleagues who participated so passionately at the race and demonstrated our strong commitment to corporate social responsibility. Being a truly successful championship even though the poor weather conditions, I do hope that the Green Triathlon® will come to Budapest again next year. We will definitely sponsor it again as the Conference and Media Center of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series in Budapest.”

For more information about the Green Triathlon® click here or call +1 604 904 9248.

Notes to Editors:
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IHG has nearly 1,600 hotels in its development pipeline, which will create 140,000 jobs worldwide over the next few years.
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InterContinental Budapest Hotel
H-1052 Budapest, Apáczai Csere J. u. 12-14. Hungary
Tel: +36 1 327 6333 Fax: +36 1 327 6357