Sports

Barcelona's Reial Club de Polo welcomes in the New Year with the traditional International Epiphany Hockey Tournament.

Taking advantage of the main European hockey leagues' holiday break, the top Spanish and international clubs will be competing with the host players. The line-up will comprise leading international teams and top-level teams from the Spanish league.

Over four days of intense competition, the grounds of Barcelona's renowned century-old polo club will host over 40 spectacular and thrilling matches in the senior, junior and veteran categories. Admission is free and open to anybody wishing to attend. There will also be a hospitality area and an interesting retail village.

Solo Moto Actual and RPM Racing bring lovers of off-road motorcycling an unmissable date with the sport, which includes the classifying rounds for two world championships. The traditional date with the Barcelona International Indoor Trial, which is being held for the 33rd time this year, and where each score counts towards the general classification in the SPEA FIM Indoor Trial World Championships, will also include the final qualifying round of the Indoor Enduro World Cup.

RPM Racing created the Indoor Trial and later the Enduro Indoor. In the year 2000, the Enduro Indoor was held as a complement to the Barcelona Indoor Trial, but the competition has now become a unique event where each score counts towards the general classification in the world cup. An afternoon of excitement, which will bring together several of our world champions from both specialities: the current indoor and outdoor champion, Toni Bou, together with Adam Raga and Albert Cabestany, in the trial, and Iván Cervantes, the current champion in the indoor and outdoor specialities, and the brand-new junior Enduro world champion, Oriol Mena.

The Barcelona Marathon is already a top-class reality and on 7th March thousands of runners conquered the streets of Barcelona in an athletics event that is comparable with the world's most successful marathons. The Marathon, which is organised by RPM Racing and A.S.O. (Amaury Sport Organisation), has grown year on year until it has become a must for athletes from all over the world. Last year's event attracted some 10,000 runners, a figure that far surpassed the numbers taking part in the 2010 marathon.

The urban route takes in some of the Catalan capital's landmarks sights, including Plaça Espanya, Camp Nou, Diagonal, Passeig de Gracia, Sagrada Familia, La Rambla and Plaça de Catalunya. The event also features a number of complementary events: the pasta party, the Breakfast Run, the Marató Expo and a number of entertainments.

From 8th to 10th March, Barcelona will once again become an international capital of sport.

The second Global Sports Forum Barcelona, under the banner “how sport shapes society” will continue to further the debate and discussion about sport as a reflection of society, an economic engine and a generator of trends and changes.

At this year's forum, speakers and delegates will be able to exchange knowledge and experiences around four core themes: sustainable development, evolving towards the digital age, youth integration and the new equilibrium in international relations.

One of the key innovations this year is the creation of the Global Sports Forum Barcelona Trophies which will be awarded in eight categories: sport and education; the sports industry; philanthropy and cooperation; major sporting events; sport in the city; sport, culture and creativity; sport and health; and geopolitics.

From 17th to 25th April, the courts of the RCTB-1899 will keep their date with the world tennis calendar when they play host to Spain's oldest international tennis tournament: the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell/ 58th Conde de Godó Trophy.

Last year, the tournament became part of the 500 series on the ATP World Tour and the club reaffirmed the commitment that has made it the focus of the city's sporting and social life. Although all the specialist clay-court players will be in Barcelona, nobody is in any doubt that the possibility of Rafael Nadal achieving a sixth consecutive title will be one of the great draws.

The club was the venue for the first international tournament in Spain in 1903. In 1953 the RCTB created the Conde de Godó Trophy, a competition that inherited the historic commitment to organise events featuring the world's leading players. This long-standing commitment has made the tournament one of the key events in the European clay court season, earning it recognition from players as one of their favourite tournaments.

2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the first Formula 1 GP at the Catalan race track. This is the only track in Spain to obtain the prize for Best F1 GP Organization in 2003 from the FOM.

The 2010 season will be the first time Fernando Alonso has been to the circuit since he signed to Ferrari. Other top drivers will also be taking part, including Jaume Alguersuari and Pedro Martínez de la Rosa. Changes to technical specifications have made it necessary for the engineers to reinvent the single-seaters. Barcelona will be the first European competition after Bahrain, Australia, Malaysia and China, and, the teams are likely to bring the definitive versions of their cars with them.

Your ticket entitles you to take a tour of the pit lane on the day of the GP and to see the drivers, mechanics and cars in the boxes.

Barcelona's Reial Club de Polo will be hosting the 42nd International Polo Tournament Barcelona Polo Classic in May. There will be three matches every day which will pit six international teams of players with a medium handicap against one another.

The Barcelona Polo Classic is a wonderful opportunity for people to experience this spectacular sporting discipline and discover one of the world's oldest sports.A panoramic grandstand overlooking the polo field, with a bar and restaurant, will provide the public with comfortable surroundings in which to enjoy the competition.

The Real Club de Polo de Barcelona club has a limited number of invitations which are available on request, from April onwards, by calling the club's offices.

An attractive retail village and a sponsors' enclosure complete the organisation of the event, which takes care of every detail.

The Reial Club Nàutic de Barcelona will be keeping its date with the regatta season, when it hosts the 37th Conde de Godó Sailing Trophy on 22nd and 23rd May.

The organisers expect almost one hundred boats to take part, divided into three regatta fields. Cruising yachts with an International Rating certificate will take part in the first. The second is reserved for vintage and classic boats, and J-80 and Platú 25 monohulls will take part in the third.

The participation of the latter group in the Conde de Godó Trophy will serve as a trial for their forthcoming competitive events, the Spanish Cup J-80 and the Spanish Platú 25 Championship, both of them organised by the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona.

The race led by Rossi and Lorenzo at the Circuit de Catalunya is etched on everyone's memory. The duel which, for all motor-racing fans who were lucky enough to see it live, was one of the best races of all time, as Doma and all the media present have also acknowledged. A thrilling spectacle from start to finish, with an overtaking manoeuvre on the last bend which is now featured in all the handbooks of future champions.

Dani Pedrosa will be on the look-out in all the races to take advantage of his veteran status and achieve a new title that the fans are eagerly awaiting.

The next grand prix will be held in Barcelona on 4th July. Admission includes a tour of the pit lane and gives you the opportunity to see the drivers and mechanics in the boxes.

The Tour de France returns to Barcelona after 44 years.

Barcelona will be hosting two stages of the 2009 Tour de France: the landmark cycling event which will take place from 4th to 26th July. The cyclists will be arriving in Barcelona on 9th July from Girona, a stage covering a distance of 175 km, and on Friday 10th July they will leave the city bound for Andorra on a route covering 224 km.

The magical natural and architectural setting of Montjuïc Hill will be the arrival and departure point for the two stages of the 2009 Tour de France, which will have Barcelona as their epicentre. The Girona - Barcelona stage will arrive at Avinguda de l’Estadi, by the Olympic Stadium, and the Barcelona-Andorra stage will depart from de Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina.

Two years into a new phase on the world sporting calendar, the Ciutat de Barcelona International Athletics Meeting has become the most important event of its kind in Spain.

This competition, which is a test event for the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010, is being held on a strategic date, 9th July, just 17 days before the opening ceremony for Barcelona 2010.

Those present at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium will be able to experience the thrills of the competition with some of the stars of world athletics, who will be attempting to add their names to the list of champions as the successors of Marta Domínguez and Tomasz Majewski, who proclaimed themselves winners shortly before securing the titles of world champion and runner-up at Berlin 2009.

The Real Club Náutico de Barcelona will be hosting the third Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona Regatta from 14th to 17th July 2010. A large number of top-level boats and crews from the international circuit of classic sailing regattas will be taking part in this international competition lending the event great prestige.

Wooden boats from the vintage division built before 1950 will be taking part, along with boats from the classic division built between 1950 and 1975.

The Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona Regatta is part of the official competition calendar of the International Committee of the Mediterranean. The Real Club Náutico de Barcelona and Puig have joined forces so that this new regatta will become further established as a key sailing event in Barcelona.

Barcelona's Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium will be the venue for the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010 from 26th July to 1st August. Barcelona is hosting these championships for the first time in its history and one of its landmark venues will provide the setting so that 1,400 athletes from more than 50 countries across the continent, some of them major stars of the sport, can compete for the medals.

Over 300 million television viewers from around the world will be able to enjoy 47 athletics competitions, 42 of which will be held at the Olympic Stadium with the remaining five, the road events, taking place in the centre of Barcelona.

The decision to share the opening ceremony with the community – on the Avinguda María Cristina on 26th July – lends even greater appeal to Barcelona 2010.

The appeal of the king of sports, coupled with the beauty of the Camp Nou, offer visitors thrilling entertainment and the chance to see a top-level sporting event live.

A must for all football lovers: the place where players such as Samitier, Kubala, Cruyff, Maradona and The Joan Gamper Trophy kicks off the football season in August, when Barça presents its new signings and plays against some of Europe's most prestigious teams, which have recently included Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich.

During the season, from August to May, you'll be able to enjoy the playing skills of the winners of a historic hat-trick of titles – The King's Cup, the Spanish League and the Champions League – during the 2008-09 season at the Camp Nou. During the week you'll be able to see Champions League matches, and matches from the Spanish League, which is one of Europe's best and provides a mix of spectacle, passion and, above all, great football featuring the top football stars of the moment, led by Leo Messi, the winner of the Ballon d'Or 2009.

A way of experiencing football, which is changing!

The Real Club deportivo Espanyol de Barcelona is one of the oldest teams playing in the Spanish League and was founded on 28th October 1900. Since 2nd August 2009, the club has had a new state-of-the-art stadium where you can enjoy fantastic football. The stadium has VIP seats and boxes in the middle tier with catering and hostess services.

The new stadium has been designed to host much more than football matches. It can cater for all kinds of events 365 days a year. You can take a guided tour of the UEFA Elite-classified stadium, which includes some of the most important areas of the ground.

Every August the Ciutat de Barcelona Trophy marks the start of the football season at the RCD Espanyol stadium, featuring prestigious teams.

For the second year running, the Montjuïc Magic Fountain will provide the splendid backdrop to the women’s qualifying rounds on the Beach Volley World Tour. From 9th to 13th September, the world’s top players will make a date with Barcelona in the last european competition in the Swatch FIVB Beach Volley World Tour’09, before the last tournament in Asia.

The unique site, right in the heart of the city, lends a special appeal to the competition. The event will take place in front of the imposing backdrop of the Palau Nacional, one of Barcelona’s most stunning landmarks. A central court seating 4,000 people will be set up here, as well as a commercial village, attached courts and a wide range of additional activities.

125 players from 50 countries, 4 beach volley courts, more than 100 matches and 200,000 dollars in prize money are just some of the statistics of this sporting event featuring the best in beach volley. Admission will be free.

The Olympic showjumping track at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona is the venue for one of the main events on the world showjumping calendar. The CSIO Barcelona will also include the world final of the Promotional League, a competition which will bring elite riders to the city from 16th to 19th September.

The competition consists of 11 trials, with highlights including the Ciutat de Barcelona Grand Prix, the Queen's Cup, and the Nations' Cup, and will once again feature entertaining riding displays, the gala dinner during the Grand Prix, the large competition village, and the fun pony park which introduces kids to the world of riding.

The Jean Bouin is the most prestigious athletics competition in Barcelona – there have been 86 of them held to date – due to its long-standing tradition and the top-level runners it attracts. The event is deeply rooted in the sporting culture of the Catalan capital. Not for nothing do 3,500 girls and boys take part every year in all the categories. The event also includes the Open which attracts over 8,000 participants.

The Jean Bouin is organised by Mundo Deportivo, Spain's oldest, and the world's second oldest sports newspaper (it was first published in 1906). Mundo Deportivo belongs to the Grupo Godó de Comunicación, Catalonia's leading communications group.

Barcelona World Race
Non stop around the planet, two crew, extreme sailing

The Barcelona World Race is the first two-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race in high-performance IMOCA Open 60 monohulls. Racing 25,000 miles from Barcelona to Barcelona, leaving the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn) on the port side and passing through the Cook Strait.

The world's top professional sailors will come together to take part in the toughest competition of its kind, testing their skills to the maximum over a three-month period.

The second Barcelona World Race will commence on 31st December 2010.