No StraUdine and only 800 athletes at the start with the mask. President Bordon: We will run ensuring safety
UDINE. The Maratonina starts again. Obviously in a hurry and with even more desire to give a moment of sport that means fun and health as explained by the president of the association Paolo Bordon, but also discipline, respect for the rules and desire for redemption to make up for lost time, he remarked the vice president of Civibank, Guglielmo Pelizzo. Because the 21st edition returns after a year of stop due to the health emergency and will be in reduced form, without all those collateral events that are not seen as the main objective of the event, beyond professional and non-professional athletes. who challenge themselves and others by comparing themselves with the stopwatch, has always been to promote sport for everyone.
“But safety comes first,” Bordon remarked. So this year no StraUdine, the 5-kilometer run-walk that saw a thousand people at the start in 2019, no Minirun Despar (500 participants two years ago), no dog race and no relay race reserved for school students. Not only. “All 800 members must have the Green pass and – underlined Bordon – will run the first 500 meters with the mask”. The volunteers of the association Clean up challenge will collect them.
The station
The appointment with the 21st City of Udine Marathon is for Sunday 3 October. The first to leave, at 9.25 am, will be the Olympic wheelchairs. Five minutes later, at 9.30, the athletes will start, in staggered blocks. But the show will start already on the evening of Saturday 2, with the time trial by invitation Salita del castello, which will start at 6pm from Piazza Lionello and will see 21 men and as many women face each other in a speed challenge on the ramp of the hill. both at the current year and at the Maratonina edition. Three hundred meters of distance, 30 meters of altitude.
The controls
To ensure distancing, the path will be divided into 7 sectors, which will be monitored by the same number of managers and volunteer surveillance personnel. Security will be watched over by the agents of the local police command of Udine and as many as 200 volunteers including Alpine troops, civil protection, the Third Guastatori Regiment, volunteers from the Udine marathon association and the Aquile Bianconere associations, Maratona Città del Vino, the Udine walkers group and Italian radio amateurs ( Udine section), under the coordination of Libertas Grions and Remanzacco. Along the competition itinerary 1000 barriers will be positioned, 850 by the Amu and 150 by the Municipality of Udine. The distance will also be guaranteed on the starting grid where blue points will be positioned on the ground: there will therefore be a snake of athletes about 500 meters long.
Path
Completely new the competition itinerary, which will develop entirely in the Friulian capital and whose length – the canonical 21,097 meters – has been certified by the World Athletics, the international athletics body, illustrated Andrea Ceschia dell’Amu: the start it is expected from via della Vittoria, in front of the Sello institute, to arrive in via Vittorio Veneto. The athletes will cross piazza I Maggio along the hill and take via Treppo, continuing along via Caneva, viale Trieste, piazzale D’Annunzio, via Gorghi, Savorgnana, Cavour, piazza Libertà and Manin. At that point there will be a second passage on piazza I Maggio, to point to piazzale Osoppo: from via Volontari della Libertà you will go towards piazzale Chiavris, via Cotonificio, piazzali XXVI Luglio, Cella, Unità d’Italia, della Repubblica, Oberdan , Del Din, in Largo delle Grazie, again piazza I Maggio, piazza Patriarcato and via Piave, to cross the finish line, as mentioned, in via Vittorio Veneto.
The promotion
To underline the importance of the Marathon also in terms of tourism promotion, at the press conference presented by the journalist Lucia Aviani, the councilor for Sport, Antonio Falcone, also intervened, who wanted to underline the organizational effort made by the Amu, Eva Seminara for the Cciaa, the regional director of Despar Fvg, Fabrizio Cicero, the president of the regional Fidal, Massimo Di Giorgio and the regional councilor for finance, Barbara Zilli who defined Udine as a «multifaceted city, capable of returning its many offers to visitors in the cultural, food and wine and now sports fields, always guaranteeing safety ».