The Ibero-American Track and Field Championships will be held May 22–24 at the CIAT

The Canary Islands are thus hosting this international event for the first time; it was unveiled today, Thursday, January 16, at a press conference attended by representatives from government agencies and the organizing entities.

Regarding this competition, the president of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, emphasized that “it is one of the most important sporting events to be held in the Canary Islands throughout 2020.” “This is a championship with a large number of participants that will bring together major stars in Tenerife and will serve as a platform to showcase the best our region has to offer.” Torres also referred to the impact on the tourism sector and the economic impact of this event, “which will also lead to improvements in the island’s sports facilities and equipment.”

The president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation, Raúl Chapado, noted that this meet—which serves as a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympic Games—is based on “technical and athletic excellence, its positive impact on the island and the municipalities hosting it, and on fostering knowledge, exchange, and volunteerism.”

For his part, the president of the Tenerife Island Council, Pedro Martín, noted that this event is the result of coordinated efforts by the various government agencies “to ensure we don’t miss out on a truly fascinating competition, which we hope will help develop new talent and serve as a promotional opportunity for the island and for a sport that isn’t usually the most widely promoted”; and he thanked the Spanish Federation for its interest in Tenerife as a host venue.

The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Patricia Hernández, spoke about the importance of this competition “so that more young people can learn about and get excited about this sport,” and explained that the local government is working with schools in the municipality “so that the entire community can enjoy these games.”

The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, said that the event “demonstrates La Laguna’s commitment to the world of sports and puts our municipality on the sports map.”

Also present at the presentation were María José Guerra, the Canary Islands Government’s Minister of Education, Universities, Culture, and Sports; Manuel López, the Canary Islands Government’s Director General of Sports; Alberto Hernández, president of the Canary Islands Athletics Federation; and Jonathan Hernández, president of the Tenerife Island Athletics Federation.

The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Insular Athletics Center will be the venue for the competition. Most of the events will take place at this facility, which opened in 2007 and was chosen in 2008 to host the Spanish National Championships. The other venue will be San Cristóbal de La Laguna, where the Half Marathon will be held concurrently. Training sessions will take place at the Francisco Peraza Municipal Stadium in La Laguna.

This event was first held in Barcelona in 1983, with 18 participating countries and 143 competing athletes. Since then, it has been held in Spain on three other occasions (in Seville in 1992, in Huelva in 2004, and in Cádiz in 2010), and has taken place in eleven other countries, with Brazil (4) hosting it the most times. The remaining nations—Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Portugal, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Chile, Venezuela, and Peru—have each hosted it once.

The Tenerife event will break the tie with Brazil in terms of the number of organizations participating and promises to be a top-tier competition, as it is one of the events that awards the most points in the World Ranking for athletes, ahead of the selection process for the Tokyo Olympic Games. This will ensure the participation of more than 400 runners and the presence of a large number of world-class athletes.

Twenty countries from the Americas are participating in this nineteenth edition (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela), six African countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, and São Tomé), and three European countries (Spain, Portugal, and Andorra).