HRH The Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark celebrated his 50th Birthday

HRH The Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark has been an avid advocator of an active lifestyle. As part of his 50th birthday celebrations, he joined more than 70.000 runners in the ‘Royal Run’ today. Combined with the 10k in Copenhagen was the Nordic Championships 10k.

HRH The Crown Prince Frederik made a point today about the importance of an active lifestyle. A record number of runners ran the 5-city celebration race, The Crown Prince ran in five cities in just one day. In Copenhagen HRH first started the elite for the Nordic Championships and then joined the recreational runners to run the 10k.

After 16.4 k running in sunny Denmark and travelling between the five cities; His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik said: "It is so overwhelming that I am nearly out of breath. It has exceeded all my expectations. I’m back where I started after running in five cities. I would like to thank the thousands who have joined me today and especially all the volunteers in the five cities."

Royal Run was an opportunity for Danes, foreigners living in Denmark or visiting Denmark to take part in the celebration of The Crown Prince who is also an active sportsman. It is his wish to celebrate his birthday with a running event.

Among the many spectators in Copenhagen was European Athletics’ president, Svein Arne Hansen. He was indeed impressed of what he saw today: "On Saturday I witnessed a great staging of the European 10000m Cup in London. Now coming to Copenhagen to see a mass participation race AND a royal run, it’s just fantastic. To me, right now, Denmark is Europe’s best organizer of mass participation races. I really hope that this success in coming years also will have an influence on Denmark’s performance in international athletics."

"We have an ambition of becoming the world’s most active nation. We are extremely pleased that ‘Royal Run’ has managed to attract new groups of runners. 29 percent of the mile runners and 10 percent of the 10 km runners have never entered a running event before, Today, they are here to run and celebrate The Crown Prince. This is extremely positive. We are very satisfied with being able to motivate more Danes towards an active lifestyle with events such as these," said Jakob Larsen, director of the Danish Athletic Federation.

It is the first time such a big running event takes place in Denmark. It has already beaten a number of records. The mile run in Copenhagen is now officially the world’s largest mile run in terms of registered for the event, eclipsing New York City’s legendary "Fifth Avenue Mile" run, which last year had 7664 finishers.

More than 25.000 people had signed up for the 10 km distance in Copenhagen, which makes this Denmark’s largest 10 km race ever. Counting all five cities more than 42.000 participants have chosen to register for the 10k distance.

Finally, ‘Royal Run’ has also succeeded in targeting a new segment of the Danes. On average, every sixth participant in Royal Run’ has never taken part in a running event before. ‘Royal Run’ has truly embraced the "never rans" and the elite athletes in this unique event.

The ‘Royal Run’ is associated with the "Move for Life" initiative, aimed at increasing the already record high activity level of the Danish population. The objective of "Move for Life" is increase the number of Danes actively engaged in sports with 600,000 by 2025, a goal that HRH The Crown Prince Frederik supports.

As an IOC Member HRH is a member of the IOC Sport and Active Society Commission and the birthday celebration with the Danes is thus a contribution to the promotion of active lifestyle and the Olympic values. HRH walked the talk so to say at his 50th year birthday celebration in Royal Run.

The festivity was carefully selected, as the Crown Prince is a skilled sportsman and has taken on the role of patron of many major, international sporting events staged in Denmark.

Nordic 10K Road Championships

Women

1. Sara Holmgren, Sweden 34:22 min.

2. Alberte Kjær Pedersen, Denmark 34:24 min

3. Louise L. Batting, Denmark 35:03 min.

Men

1. Roman Fosti, Estonia 30:20 min.

2. David Nilsson, Sweden 30:24 min.

3. Martin Egebjerg Olesen, Denmark 30:33 min.

Editor’s Note

Royal Run

· First time participants 10k: 10% 1 Mile: 29%

· Demarks largest 10k ever

· 1 mile world’s largest in terms of runners signed up

HRH Crown Prince Frederik has participated in

· Copenhagen Marathon

· KMD Ironman Copenhagen

· Dragon Gold Cup

Selection of sporting events in Denmark in 2018 with HRH Crown Prince as Patron

· IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship 2018

· ITU Multisport Festival 2018 (Triathlon)

· World Sailing Championships (all Olympic Classes) 2018

For further information

Henriette Leth Nielsen, media director, The Danish Athletic Federation.

Cell +45 20152220

Eline Andersen, int. media staff, Royal Run Communication Team

Cell +4551225385

The Royal Run is organised by the NOC & Sport Confederation of Denmark, DGI and the Danish Athletic Federation as part of the ambitious "Bevæg dig for livet" (Move for Life) campaign. Royal Run is supported by Nordea-fonden and TrygFonden.

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