STARS, MINIMARCIALONGA AND YOUNG

After the morning session with the Marcialonga Story event, the afternoon in Lago di Tesero (Trentino region – Italy) has seen three events taking place: at 1:00 p.m. started the charity event Marcialonga Stars, followed at 2:00 p.m. by Minimarcialonga for the children, and at 2:30 p.m. by Marcialonga Young for young skiers in the “Ragazzi” category.

Marcialonga Stars, as its name suggests, has seen the participation of many VIPs, all gathered at the Cross-Country Stadium of Lago di Tesero to raise funds in favour of LILT – the Italian cancer league – through a symbolic one kilometre race. The President of LILT-Trento and co-founder of Marcialonga Mario Cristofolini emphasised the natural alliance between health and sport, recalled that "physical activity is the least expensive and most important prevention system". To assert his message, there were many important athletes such as Paolo Bettini, Olympic and World champion of road cycling, who stated that Marcialonga Stars “is one of the most important events in this sense". Among all these well-known characters, there was also an exceptional testimonial, Ignazio Moser, who participated in the Italian TV show “Grande Fratello Vip”. Surrounded by fans of all ages, Ignazio remembered the many times when, as a child, he was present at Marcialonga with his father Francesco Moser, famous cycling champion. Many others were present, such as Antonella Confortola with her husband Jonathan Wyatt, Franco Nones, Claudia Paolazzi, Gilberto Simoni, Antonio Molinari, Marco Albarello and Don Franco Torresani.

It was certainly not a competitive race, but there was someone who started in order to win. This is the case of Matteo Giacomuzzi, from Ziano di Fiemme, who was chosen as champion by his “Lions” club from Fiemme and Fassa valleys. Among the ladies, the fastest was the biker Claudia Paolazzi. There were also athletes who participated in this charity event using snowshoes. The winner was Don Franco Torresani, already champion of mountain running, who managed to put his snowshoes ahead of Luca Zeni, member of the provincial council.

The council members Pietro De Godenz and Mauro Gilmozzi were also present. Gilmozzi stressed his will to participate in Marcialonga Stars, "in order to give meaning and importance to the work of all these volunteers and to their valuable mission".

And after the charity event, it was the turn of the children of Minimarcialonga: about 500 children under 12 years of age met at the Cross-Country Stadium for a three kilometres race of joy, with the honour of skiing on the same snow that a few weeks ago hosted the Tour de Ski and the Nordic Combined World Cup. And to make these little athletes understand that sport is not only a competition, but rather fun, the race wasn’t competitive at all, with a prize both for the first and for the last one. Luca Ferrari from Predazzo was the first just few metres ahead of the fastest Chiara Trettel from Masi di Cavalese.

Last, but only in chronological terms, the Marcialonga Young, which is organized for cross-country skiers who are too old for Minimarcialonga but too young to participate in tomorrow's Marcialonga. The skiers of the “Ragazzi” category participated in a 4-kilometre race: Matteo Franzoni from Molina di Fiemme won. In the female category the winner was Alessia Togni from Masi di Cavalese. The races for the “Allievi”, “Aspiranti” and “Junior” categories will take place tomorrow at the Cross-Country Stadium in Lago di Tesero at 8.45 a.m., after the “queen” race Marcialonga will have started from Moena at 7.50 a.m.