RUBICON 2024 Athletes Arrive in Bucharest on Sunday, March 24

From Chisinau to Bucharest on foot—this is the challenge undertaken by the participants in the RUBICON 2024 ultramarathon, which was kicked off on Friday in the Great National Assembly Square. The running race is held in a cross-border regime for the first time. The participants will run about 500 kilometres through Chisinau, ATU Gagauzia, and four districts of the Republic of Moldova. The competition will continue via five counties in Romania and end in Bucharest on March 24, IPN reports.

We are here today to recognize and appreciate your courage and determination. We are here to celebrate sport and health. Every step you take on this long distance is due to your inner strength. Each of you probably has your reason for undertaking this challenge. Still, there is also a common reason – to shorten the distance from Chisinau to Bucharest, to bring the Republic of Moldova closer to Romania, to strengthen peace, friendship and solidarity. This is also what I want for our country – to trust our own forces, to move forward together, despite the obstacles, to become part of the big European family because we are all united by our love for the country, by our desire to ensure peace, freedom and well-being.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu supporting the contenders.

RUBICON 2024 encourages an active and healthy lifestyle and is also an opportunity to discover the crossed regions’ unique landscapes and cultural richness. The participants become ambassadors of friendship between Romania and the Republic of Moldova and, through their example, will send a strong message of openness and solidarity, said the president of the Romanian National Agency for Sports, Elisabeta Lipă, who was quoted in a press release of the competition’s organizers.

The group of runners will enter Romania through the Oancea border crossing point. The participants will carry water and food and run both day and night. The entire route is estimated to be covered in about 52 hours. A bus provided by the organizers will accompany the athletes throughout the event. The winner of RUBICON 2024 will receive, in addition to the cup, a special shield to place all the badges of the won stages.

The planned route is 478 kilometers long and will pass through Ialoveni, Cimișlia, Taraclia, Gagauzia, and Cahul, as well as the Romanian counties Galați, Brăila, Buzău, Ialomița, and Ilfov and Bucharest. Each area corresponds to at least one and a maximum of ten of the 46 stages of the race.