Lanzarote will become the headquarters of the World Rescue Championship in traffic accidents in 2023. The president of the Security and Emergencies Consortium of the island, Marcos Bergaz, received the baton of this world championship at the Grand Theater of Luxembourg, which will take place on the island from October 19 to 23 next year.
The event, which took place last week on the occasion of the inauguration of the 2022 edition that ended this Sunday, was attended by the Luxembourg Minister of the Interior, Taina Bofferding, the mayor of the city, Lydie Polfer, and the president of the World Rescue Organization, Paul Schroeder.
Bergaz, during his speech before half a thousand people, highlighted “the natural and landscape values of Lanzarote, the safety of the destination and the different beauty of an island that brings together all the ingredients to host the next world championship, and which is supported by its experience in organizing top-level sporting events.”
Marcos Bergaz also encouraged attendees “to discover Lanzarote, a unique place”. “I invite you to discover it, as more than two million tourists do every year who usually repeat and recommend that friends, neighbors and family also do so,” he added.
“The Nobel Prize for Literature José Saramago already said: Lanzarote is not my land, but it is my land. I tell you that, if you visit us, it will also be everyone's land,” said Bergaz.
During the event, a video was shown to promote the main tourist attractions of Lanzarote and the future championship, which, upon completion, received a warm applause from all attendees.
As a sign of gratitude to the host country of the event and on behalf of the Cabildo and its president, María Dolores Corujo, Bergaz presented the Luxembourg authorities with a book about the life of César Manrique, as well as a small ceramic work made by local artisans.
The vice president of the Cabildo explained that both gifts were a tribute to “the importance that the most brilliant artist from Lanzarote has had in the history of our island and the respect that is professed to the hands that care for our traditions.”
Data from the Luxembourg 2022 world championship
The world competition that takes place in Luxembourg has a total of 64 teams representing a total of seventeen countries: United States, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Ireland, Taiwan, Romania, South Africa, Czech Republic, Belgium and Austria.
During the last two years, as a result of the pandemic, a championship that began in 1999 could not be held, and of which the Lanzarote fire brigade team was runner-up in a modality in 2018, in an edition held in South Africa.
