Antonio Sabugueiro, Founder of San Silvestre Vallecana, Dies at 94
Antonio Sabugueiro, who founded Madrid's San Silvestre Vallecana New Year's Eve race in 1964, died Sunday at 94. How the race grew from 57 runners in 1964.
Antonio Sabugueiro, the man who came up with and founded the San Silvestre Vallecana, Madrid’s New Year’s Eve road race, died on Sunday at the age of 94, the newspaper El Mundo reported. The race he started with two friends now brings tens of thousands of runners onto the city’s streets on the last day of the year.
Sabugueiro was born on June 26, 1932, in Ourense, in Galicia. After moving to Madrid he became closely attached to Vallecas, the district in the southeast of the city that gives the race its name. He sat on the board of Rayo, the neighborhood’s football club, though El Mundo says athletics was always what he cared about most.
An idea from a café on Calle Monte Igueldo
The race was planned at the Bellaluz café, at number 6 of Calle Monte Igueldo, by Sabugueiro and his friends Carlos Roa and Manolo Fernández. Races in Madrid at the time were mostly muddy cross-country events in the Casa de Campo and other parks. The three wanted something different, modeled on the well-known year-end race in São Paulo, Brazil.
From 57 runners to a citywide race
- 1964: the first edition is held on Dec. 27 under the name Gran Premio Vallecas. It covers 2.7 kilometers and has 57 runners, all of them men. Jesús Hurtado wins.
- Second year: the event moves to Dec. 31 and starts to be called San Silvestre Vallecana, a name that came from an article by José Luis Gilabert, a journalist at the sports daily Marca.
- 1977: amateur runners are admitted, an idea credited to the radio presenter Pepe Domingo Castaño.
- 1981: a women’s category is created. Norway’s Grete Waitz is its first winner.
- Today: the course covers 10 kilometers and the field runs to tens of thousands.
What it means for Madrid’s New Year’s Eve
For many residents the race is how Dec. 31 is spent in Madrid. It starts near the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and crosses the city to Vallecas. The popular race, open to amateurs, finishes in the streets of the district. The international race, for elite athletes, ends inside Rayo’s stadium.
The field has included Spanish athletes such as Martín Fiz, Fermín Cacho, Chema Martínez and Nuria Fernández, according to El Mundo. International names who have run it include Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo and Britain’s Paula Radcliffe.
Honors late in life
Sabugueiro received the Copa Stadium 2023 at the Premios Nacionales del Deporte (Spain’s national sports awards) in recognition of his career. He also held the bronze medal of the Real Orden al Mérito Deportivo (the Royal Order of Sporting Merit), a sporting merit trophy from the Real Federación Española de Atletismo (Spain’s athletics federation) and a merit emblem from the Instituto Municipal de Deportes, the city’s sports institute.
El Mundo did not report a cause of death or funeral arrangements.
Source: El Mundo
