April presents a diversified sports agenda in Portimão
The next month in Portimão will feature different events in the municipality’s sports centres aimed at various age groups. April kicks off with the celebration of World Physical Activity Day, but there are many more suggestions such as a paddle tennis competition, fitness, motorbike races, football, hiking, gymnastics and even a petanque tournament.
To mark World Physical Activity Day, a programme has been drawn up that will take place between 2 and 7 April, from 9 am to 1 pm, with free activities but compulsory registration. The Mexilhoeira Grande Sports Complex is organising open aqua aerobics classes on the 2nd from 7.10 pm to 7.50 pm, on the 3rd from 6.20 pm to 7.05 pm and on the 4th from 9 am to 9.40 am. Entries can be made by emailing cdmexgrande@cm-portimao.pt or calling + 351 282248571.
The Portimão Municipal Swimming Pool is also promoting a mega aqua aerobics class on the 5th from 11.10 am to 12 pm, followed by a Parents’ and children’s fun session on the same day at 12 pm. Entries can be made until the 3rd of April by emailing info@portinado.com or calling + 351 282415456. The Alvor Sports Complex is organising an open swimming lesson on April 5 and 7, from 12.30 pm to 1.40 pm.
A ‘Sport for All’ morning will be one of the attractions for the population, especially families, who on the 5th and 6th, from 10 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 6 pm, can practise fitness exercises, 3×3 basketball, handball, take part in a cycling and mountain biking gymkhana or remember traditional games, not forgetting the inflatables, in a renovated space at the Portimão Fair and Exhibition Centre, next to the Portimão Arena.
With a strong sporting dynamic, the month continues with the celebration of the 23rd anniversary of the Alvor Sports Complex on the 8th, which is full of activities, especially for regular facility users.
One of the competitions that has also become a tradition in Portimão is the ‘Bonicup 2025’ training football tournament, in 7-a-side and 11-a-side football. This year it will take place between 11 and 13 April at the Mexilhoeira Grande Sports Complex and the Major David Neto Training Centre. As usual, the competition will be attended by clubs from Portugal and Spain, not least because it aims to promote the exchange of games between the two countries, while at the same time encouraging and publicising children’s football and fair play.
Another of the returns that mark April and the mild spring temperatures, in what is an invitation to outdoor activities, are the events included in the Active Sundays project, which are being extended to Mexilhoeira Grande for the first time this year. The first initiative will, therefore, be the ‘Sun and Skin Walk’, scheduled to take place in Mexilhoeira Grande.
The first initiative will, therefore, be the ‘Sun and Skin Walk’, scheduled for 13 April at 9 am. Participants will gather on the south side of the town’s main roundabout, near the Caminho da Rocha road. Also under this spring motto, the Praia da Rocha Spring Beach Tennis Tournament is scheduled for 12 and 13 April at the Praia da Rocha Sports Area.
With free participation, this walk was created in 2019, when Portimão was European City of Sport, and aims to sensitise the population to the benefits and harms of sun exposure, depending on how and when people sunbathe. The 8km route allows you to enjoy a vast, flat, green landscape of agricultural fields and Mediterranean scrubland and, on the way back, in a sandier area, the marshes and long flats of the Ria de Alvor.
Also as part of this project, the Alvor Sports Complex is organising a fitness and dance initiative on 27 April, with free entry, aimed at families with the aim of promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyle habits.
The Portimão Municipality is promoting the Active Sundays project to encourage families to take part in a sporting activity in a more informal way, combining moments of leisure with the promotion of well-being and the fight against sedentary lifestyles. Until October, initiatives are planned at the Alvor Sports Complex, always on the last Sunday of the month, with a break in August, ranging from bike and canoe rides, pickleball, yoga and Pilates, or functional training classes. Residents of the municipality aged between 4 and 80 can take part.
The 25th of April holiday also sets the tone for another edition of the Freedom Run, which will start in Portimão’s riverside area, in what is a popular event with a long history in Portimão. It’s organised by the Algarve Athletics Association and Portimão City Council and registration is underway at corridadaliberdadeportimao.pt.
April at the Autódromo Internacional do four competitions will also mark Algarve. The Algarve Iberian Racing Festival (4 to 6 April), the Porsche Sprint Challenge (10 to 12 April), the CRM Racing Series (18 and 19 April) and the International GT Open (24 to 27 April) are the events on offer at the Portimão circuit.
The month’s agenda also includes the Open Padel Jovem Portimão 5000 (5th and 6th), the Portimão Fitness Medley (5th), at the Boavista Sports Pavilion, and Gata na Praia (11th to 16th April), an event organised by the University of Minho that will take 400 higher education students to the Praia da Rocha Sports Area. The Optimist Portuguese Cup (from 13 to 15 April), the 3rd Easter Futsal Tournament as part of the celebrations for Gejupce’s 30th anniversary (from 17 to 19 April), the Easter Gymnastics Sarau (19 April) and the Francisco Lúcio Petanque Tournament (19 April) are other proposals that reveal the Municipality’s dynamic approach to sport.
This set of activities concludes with the Futsal Tournament as part of the 25 April celebrations, at the Manuel Teixeira Gomes Secondary School Sports Pavilion, with the 4th Little Champions League (from 25 to 27 April and on 1 and 4 May), at the Mexilhoeira Grande Sports Complex, the Restinga Stadium and the Major David Neto Training Centre, and with Zumba By Nigth 2 (on the 30th), at the Boavista Sports Pavilion, as part of the World Dance Day celebrations.
This is a month full of sporting moments, with a wide range of activities for all audiences. From high-level competition to family fun. More information about these events is available at www.vivaportimao.pt or on the Portimão Municipality’s official Facebook and Instagram social networks.
