CIAT Hosts the Santa Cruz International Rally Honoring José Miguel Molowny

The Tenerife Island Council, through its Sports Department, presents the 15th Santa Cruz de Tenerife Track and Field Meet, an athletics event organized by the Club Corredores Tenerife that will be held on Saturday, April 22, at the Insular Athletics Center (CIAT). This year’s edition marks the first time the event has taken on an international character since its inception and will also pay tribute to the renowned athlete José Miguel Molowny.

The event’s opening ceremony was attended by the island’s Councilor for Sports, Concepción Rivero; the president of the Tenerife Runners Club, Ricardo Fajardo; and the athlete being honored, José Miguel Molowny.

Concepción Rivero stated that “this event is an opportunity for athletes from the Canary Islands to compete against national and international athletes,” and she therefore thanked “the organizers and the team of volunteers whose efforts will ensure the event runs smoothly.” In addition, Rivero recognized Molowny’s career, noting that he “is a key figure in the world of track and field in Tenerife.”

For his part, Ricardo Fajardo, president of the Tenerife Runners Club, noted that “this event has been held since 2008, when the CIAT was inaugurated, and since 2010 it has had the support of the Cabildo, which has allowed us to grow more and more.” He also emphasized that “last year’s event saw a large turnout of foreign athletes, which led the Spanish Athletics Federation to propose this year that we give the race an international character.”

The honored athlete, José Miguel Molowny, took the opportunity to extend his gratitude to “all the brave athletes from La Manzanilla who stood by my side since 1958, until I left in ’62, since it was a time of hardship and poverty when we had neither financial nor athletic resources, but each of us gave it everything we had to compete in our events.”

About three hundred athletes are expected to participate in this year’s event. In addition, there will be a team of twenty-five young volunteer athletes who will assist the organizers in ensuring the competition runs smoothly, as well as about twenty judges from the Canary Islands Committee alongside the chief judge appointed by the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation. In previous years, the event has featured prestigious athletes such as Olympians Guni Gunnarson, Lukas Weishardinger, Mauricio Ortega, Roberto Moya, Laura Müller, Chiliquingua, and Bruno Hortelano, among others.

As for the events, they will be open to both male and female athletes ranging from youth to masters age groups. Competitions will be held in the long jump, discus, high jump, and javelin.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of the Club Corredores Tenerife Santa Cruz decided last December that the event would be named after José Miguel Molowny.

Molowny was an athlete in the late 1950s and early 1960s, excelling in the pole vault and high jump from an early age. In addition to his early years in Tenerife, where he trained with Juan Ruano Rojas, he continued to train and refine his high jump technique in Barcelona. After returning to Tenerife, he served as sports advisor to the Tenerife Island Council and was one of the people who oversaw the installation of the first tartan track at La Manzanilla in 1986.