Technogym has announced the launch of the Run X World Treadmill Championship, the first world championship for running on connected treadmills over five kilometres.
The event is the result of a shared vision of the equipment supplier and World Athletics and aims to leverage the popularity of running, making it accessible to everyone in complete safety and comfort, without time or weather constraints, and bringing running communities into fitness clubs.
Running is the most practiced sport in the world and the way people are experiencing it is evolving from an individual performance, to one that involves belonging, wellbeing, data, and connection.
Fitness and wellness clubs, universities, corporate facilities, and hotels can affiliate by joining the network of official centres where the first World Championship of treadmill running will be held.
Run X represents an opportunity for operators to attract new members and increase the retention of existing ones. Official Run X Centres will gain access to competition software, certified rankings, merchandising, marketing support and social media content.
From October 2026, runners from all over the world will be able to compete in the qualification phase within the local affiliated centers.
Run X will allow runners to measure themselves against other participants via an online leaderboard, monitoring the ranking in real-time both within their club and on a global scale. The results of the five kilometre trials will be certified by the treadmills connected to the Technogym Digital Ecosystem.
Starting in January 2027, qualified users in each country will participate in the regional phase.
The final will be held at the Technogym Village, in the heart of the Wellness Valley in Cesena, Italy on 20-21 March 2027. The 10 best athletes, both overall and by age group in the male and female categories, will compete for the first world title. On this occasion, there will be a prize pool of US$100,000.
World Athletics will award wild card entries to respective Member Federations of the best overall male and female athlete to compete in the 5 km race at the 2027 World Athletics Road Running Championships that take place in Yangzhou, China, the weekend after the Run X final.
Former Team GB middle distance Olympic gold medallist, Seb Coe, is an ambassador of the programme and spoke to HCM for an upcoming issue.
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