2000 YEARS OF SPORT

The first sporting precedents in the history of the city date back to ancient Roman Tarraco. The circus and the amphitheatre, built in the 1st and 2nd centuries, respectively, staged the events. The first local sportsman documented was Eutiches the charioteer.

Later, documentation exists written about sports competitions in Tarragona in the 13th century, such as horse racing (possibly held on Miracle beach and Via Augusta); the game of ‘bitlles’ (skittles played on rough ground) in Forum Square; stone throwing beneath the city walls and some ball games using the atrium of some church.

As of 1575 games of ‘trinquet’ are dated, a precursor of today’s “pelota” which was played in pairs, and a hybrid of handball and basketball which consisted of placing a ball into a basket almost at ground level.

At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, sport began its definitive expansion in Tarragona, with a true explosion of clubs. The first was “Els Xiflats”, founded in 1870 by the same people who, eight years later, would found the Club Nàutic. 1886 saw the birth of the Gimnasio Café del Centre, which was to become Club Gimnàstic in 1893 with the incorporation of sections such as hiking, cycling and running races. Later on, as of 1908, Gimnàstic diversified to such sports as “pelota”, athletics, football and basketball.

Currently, sport in Tarragona is in very good health and is one of the city’s driving forces. A total of 120 clubs in 42 different disciplines make up the sports mosaic of the city that aspires to be the venue for the games in 2017.

Gimnàstic, and more specifically its football team, is the main ambassador of the city. Currently, the first team plays in the Spanish Second Division and has over 8,000 members. Its taste of the First Division in the 2006-2007 season revitalised the idyll it has with the townspeople.

In basketball, the city’s team of reference is Club Bàsquet Tarragona, founded in 1978 and with 1,500 members. It currently plays in the LEB Silver league, the third category for this sport in Spain.

Tarragona also has a volleyball team, Sant Pere i Sant Pau, which plays in the top category, the Superleague, and has several international players in its team.

Other sports, such as tennis and swimming have a long tradition in the city. Club Tenis Tarragona has held the Challenger Costa Daurada tournament for several years, and its facilities have also hosted top level competitions: the Davis Cup match between Spain and Denmark, in 1996, and the Federation Cup between Spain and Australia in 2003.

With regard to individuals, ladies athletics is notable. Tarragona is proud to have trained Natalia Rodríguez, three times olympian (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008) and Spanish record holder and second place in Europe indoors for 1,500 metres. Our throwers Berta Castells (hammer) and Irache Quintanal (shot) have twice been to the Olympics, while Laia Forcadell participated in Beijing on 2008 in the 400 metres.

In addition, other names shine in the town’s sporting world, such as that of Óscar Cadiach, a renowned climber who has done eight peaks of 8,000 metres and who, moreover, is the first westerner to have climbed Everest (8,848 metres) without the use of oxygen by the Tibetan slope. Then there are motorcyclists Joan Olivé, sixth in the 2008 125 cc World Championship, and Albert Cabestany, world indoor champion in 2002.

It is therefore clear that Tarragona is a city which lives its sport intensely. Furthermore, its citizens are involved in numerous mass participation activities, such as the bike ride, which is organised every spring and brings thousands of Tarragonins together to ride through the city’s main streets and avenues. Other such examples are the fiesta of 'Joc i de l’Esport' (Games and Sport), in June; the Tarragona Fun Run, which coincides with the city’s Saint Tecla festivities; the 'Ciclocalçotada', which combines sport and gastronomy, and the Tarragona City Half Marathon, which is held during the month of November at which five hundred athletes participate.

On the Tarragona Sports Board website you can find further information on the town’s sports activities involving its citizens and the city’s municipal sports facilities.

TARRAGONA SPORTS BOARD
http://www.tinet.org/~pesports/