- The programme at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium featured notable sessions with the Spanish Paralympic Committee and the Activídate project, which prescribes personalised physical activity for users of the public healthcare system
- Saturday’s programme also featured agility, with demonstrations involving handlers and dogs at the Manuel Naranjo Sosa football pitches, as well as the Las Canteras open-water swim, completed by 187 participants
ExpoDeca 2026 experienced a Saturday marked by strong public participation in its sporting activities and by the interest generated by the conferences, congresses and talks held at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium.
Health, inclusion, the social impact of sport, and the international and environmental impact of major competitions were among the main themes addressed during the third edition of the Canary Islands Physical Activity and Sports Fair, which continues to take place around Plaza de la Música in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Nearly one thousand attendees at the educational programme
One of the standout features of ExpoDeca 2026 is its programme of congresses, conferences, talks and presentations, distributed across the Speaker’s Corner, Sala Alegranza and the Canary Islands Government area at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium.
Among the most important events was the national congress organised by the Spanish Federation of Sports Management Associations (FAGDE), held on 12 and 13 November and attended by 140 people.
This figure is joined by another 810 participants registered across almost forty additional sessions, bringing the total number of people who have attended the educational programme to around one thousand in just over two days of the fair.
The sessions have covered a wide range of issues linked to the sports sector, including sports management, health, competition organisation, public-private collaboration, event funding, inclusion and equality.
Activídate: nearly one thousand users referred in one year
One of the morning sessions at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium focused on the present and future of the Canary Islands physical activity for health system, as part of the Activídate project.
Activídate is a public, universal and free service promoted by the Canary Islands Government through the Regional Ministries of Health and of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports.
Launched in September 2025, the initiative allows primary care doctors within the Canary Islands Health Service to prescribe physical activity and refer patients to Active Physical Exercise Units.
There, physical education and sports professionals design and supervise training plans adapted to the specific needs of each person. The entire process is free of charge and supported by a digital monitoring system.
“We came to ExpoDeca to present the work we are currently carrying out and our future strategy,” said Noemí Rodríguez, Director of Activídate, who confirmed that “we already have almost one thousand users referred from the healthcare system to the sports system”.
One of the programme’s objectives is to ensure that every municipality in the Canary Islands, with the participation of the island councils, has its own physical activity and exercise unit.
Rodríguez explained that the project will continue to expand so that users can practise sport in the way recommended to them within their own municipality and later return to the unit to assess their progress.
“We believe that within no more than six months, a person could become fully engaged in sport and continue independently, which is what we are aiming for,” she said. “But this needs to be extended to every municipality in the Canary Islands: everyone in the islands has the right to access this service.”
The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium also hosted the Sport and Disability forum, promoted by Fundación DISA and featuring the Spanish Paralympic Committee, which has taken part in ExpoDeca since its first edition in 2024.
The event has become one of the established highlights of the fair’s programme.
The sporting experience of a world champion
Another eagerly anticipated session took place in Sala Alegranza, where Ángel Merino and Maite Zazón, parents of Spanish international footballer Mikel Merino, shared with the audience their memories and experiences of managing their son’s sporting career as a family.
Ángel Merino, a former professional footballer who played for UD Las Palmas among other clubs, reflected on how “you do not realise how important your past is until the present arrives and you see what you have achieved”.
He also spoke about his son’s time in the German and English leagues, a period which, despite the difficulties, helped him to develop resilience.
“It helped him develop that resilience people talk about now – the ability to accept negative situations in your work. Despite how bad everything seemed, he was able to take something positive from it.”
“You can take something positive from every experience in life,” he added. “The beginnings were difficult, but today I am sure he realises how much they helped him.”
The international impact of Rally Islas Canarias and Transgrancanaria
The economic, social and tourism impact of major sporting events also featured prominently at ExpoDeca.
Rally Islas Canarias took centre stage with the presentation Canary Islands on the world motorsport map: Present and future of Rally Islas Canarias, Rally de España, held at the Speaker’s Corner in the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium.
The Gran Canaria event, with fifty years of history and now part of the World Rally Championship, presented figures on its accumulated impact and media reach in 2026 compared with 2025, during its second year in the world championship, with a contract currently in place until 2031.
“We want to communicate and analyse how a sporting event of this level stimulates the economy, society and tourism,” said rally director Pepo Batista.
He stated that the direct economic impact generated in Gran Canaria now exceeds €69 million, with attendance of around 540,000 people. In addition, the media exposure generated for sponsors exceeds €93 million.
Batista also highlighted the fact that the championship is broadcast live around the world, further increasing its international reach.
“We are the sporting event in the Canary Islands with the greatest international impact in terms of promoting the image of the archipelago, and Gran Canaria in particular, so every euro invested generates a very high return,” he said.
He also praised ExpoDeca, describing it as “an exceptional idea that should be replicated nationally in Spain’s different autonomous communities”.
He highlighted the fair as a major showcase and said that, for an event such as Rally Islas Canarias, it is essential “to work hand in hand with institutions and to be present at the region’s most important event for the sector”.
Meanwhile, The North Face Transgrancanaria presented its event sustainability assessment report in the Canary Islands Government area, focusing on monitoring the race’s carbon footprint and environmental impact.
In its 2026 edition, The North Face Transgrancanaria became the first sporting event to calculate its carbon footprint in accordance with the Canary Islands Carbon Footprint Register, a tool developed by the Canary Islands Government’s Regional Ministry for Ecological Transition and Energy.
The system estimates greenhouse gas emissions using official factors adapted to the specific circumstances of the archipelago.
This process also enabled the event to obtain the Canary Islands Gold Sustainable Sports Event certification.
The mountain race has taken part as a pilot project in the events section of the register, taking another step forward in its commitment to sustainability and setting a precedent for other sporting competitions in the Canary Islands.
Agility: fun for handlers and dogs
The Manuel Naranjo Sosa football pitches have hosted a range of sporting disciplines during ExpoDeca, including rugby, baseball and softball, as well as agility demonstrations.
In agility, handlers compete alongside their dogs on obstacle courses that require a high level of coordination and technical skill.
Club Deportivo Sigue Hop Gran Canaria organised a theoretical and practical seminar to introduce the discipline and explain how the competitions work, including demonstrations of the different obstacles used on the courses.
Salvador Silva, a club member and national judge -the only person appointed in the Canary Islands by the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation- was one of the people involved in the activity.
From beside the course, he explained that agility is “a very attractive, technical and quite complex sport”, and that the main purpose of the event was to bring it closer to the public.
“In a way, we move away from the formal structure of a competition so that we can explain absolutely everything that is happening,” Silva said.
During the demonstrations, the technical aspects of each obstacle were explained, along with the way handlers communicate with their dogs, not only verbally but also through the movement of their arms, legs and shoulders.
The explanation was designed to help spectators understand what is happening on the course and appreciate the teamwork involved.
“They have a fantastic time. They do not know whether they win or lose; they are simply eager to get onto the course and interact with their handler. A dog that practises agility is mentally and physically healthy,” the judge said.
Ten elite pairs in the padel tournament
The Canary Islands Padel Federation has once again played a prominent role at ExpoDeca, where it has installed a court since the first edition so that visitors can discover and try the sport.
“For us, it is a privilege to be part of this sports fair. We have been here since the first year, setting up our padel court so that everyone attending can enjoy and discover a little more about the sport,” said federation representative Javier García Barreto.
The portable court saw strong participation throughout the day, with many visitors taking the opportunity to play spontaneous matches.
In the afternoon, attention turned to competition, with the start of a tournament created specifically for the event and featuring ten elite pairs.
The final will take place on the morning of Sunday, 15 November.
Swimming, Hyatlón and CrossFit among the major sporting events
Saturday was also marked by ExpoDeca’s major open-water swimming event, with a route running from La Puntilla to La Cícer, from one end of Las Canteras beach to the other, finishing next to the fair’s main site.
A total of 187 participants completed the event, divided into three starts between 12:30 and 14:30.
The competition joins other major sporting events taking place during ExpoDeca, including the third event of the national Hyatlón circuit and the fourth edition of the Gran Canaria Challenge, a CrossFit competition.
Both have developed a strong identity within the fair’s programme.
The presence of athletes competing at full intensity has become one of ExpoDeca’s defining visual features: it is practically the first thing visitors see as they approach Plaza de la Música and the different areas of the event.
Other disciplines also occupied different parts of the fair’s 34,000 square metres.
Saturday’s activities included a Social Run, a wheelchair slalom exhibition, a simultaneous chess event, a Life Challenge championship combining technology, sport and gamification, a triathlon presentation and a cutting shapes dance workshop.
From plough-lifting demonstrations to volleyball matches, ExpoDeca once again became a meeting point both for people who already enjoy sport and for those looking to discover new disciplines.
Support and information
ExpoDeca 2026 is promoted by the Canary Islands Government through the Regional Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports, and organised by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria through Infecar, Feria de Gran Canaria.
Las Arenas Shopping Centre, Fundación DISA, Provital, Fred. Olsen, Binter, Tirma, Firgas, Ahembo, Ybarra, Citroën and Gofio La Piña support the event as sponsors, while Proexca and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council participate as collaborating organisations.
All updated information about the fair is available on the official website, expodeca.es. Its search tool allows users to find sporting activities by discipline, date and time. ExpoDeca 2026 also has a WhatsApp channel for following the latest news from the fair.
