Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores, football stadium
The Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores is a reinforced-concrete stadium in Zone 5 of Guatemala City, with seating divided into five sections: Palco, the only roofed one, on the west; Tribuna around it; Preferencia on the east; and General Norte and General Sur, the latter holding the main entrance. An eight-lane tartan track encircles the grass field, and blue seats fill the curved stands.
Built in 1948 as part of the Ciudad Olímpica project in Zone 5, the reinforced-concrete stadium was inaugurated on 23 February 1950 for the VI Central American and Caribbean Games, where local runner Doroteo Guamuch won the half marathon. It was renamed Mateo Flores after his 1952 Boston Marathon victory, and Congress restored his birth name, Doroteo Guamuch Flores, in 2016. In 1951 it hosted the handover of power to elected president Jacobo Árbenz.
The stadium is named after Doroteo Guamuch Flores, the long-distance runner from Guatemala who won the 1952 Boston Marathon; the government renamed the venue for him, and it is still called "El Mateo" after the name he was known by abroad. The annual Vuelta a Guatemala cycling race finishes here, and Metallica played a concert in 2010.
The stadium stands at 10 Avenida, Ciudad de los Deportes, Zona 5, and the main entrance is in the General Sur section to the south. The Palco on the west side is the only covered seating area. The field is ringed by an eight-lane tartan track, so the front rows sit back from the grass.
The stadium is the usual finishing point of the Vuelta a Guatemala, the country's main road cycling race. Its sand track was replaced by a tartan surface in July 1996, and local runner Berner Rodas set a national 1500 metres record the first time it was used.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,749 contributors worldwide.