Universally acknowledged as one of the most popular cross-country ski race in the world, the Italian Marcialonga is ready to kick off next Sunday 31st January in Trentino region (Italy).
The 37th edition of the “Queen” of the Italian ski-marathons through the Fiemme and Fassa valleys (70 km, start in Moena and finish in Cavalese), is the absolute star event of the season.
The tracks have been perfectly prepared with 150.000 meters cubed of snow produced in the last days and accurately set on the race course. Thanks also to the low temperatures registered over the past days, and forecast for Saturday and Sunday morning (down to -12°C), this year’s course will probably win the award for “best Marcialonga tracks” ever made in over 35 years of this race history, as Alfredo Weiss (OC president) claimed.
Among the many top athletes on the start line, there will be the Swedes Oskar Svärd, Daniel Tynell and Jerry Ahrlin – who won last year’s Marcialonga and in 2007– and their fellow countrywomen Nyström, Lintzen and Hansson. The Norwegian champion Jörgen Aukland – who won the race in 2003 and 2006, and arrived second in 2007, 2008 and 2009 – will also be part of the top group, along with his brother Anders – who was the “gold medallist” in 2004 and 2008 – and the former world champion Thomas Alsgaard. The winner of last year’s female race, the Norwegian Hilde G. Pedersen, will try to win the third Marcialonga of her career – after 2007 and 2009. Other “big” names on the Marcialonga startlist are the Austrian Steurer, the Czech Rezac, the Estonian Mae and the “azzurri” Cattaneo, Carrara and Santus.
Bjørn Dæhlie, probably the greatest Winter Olympic athlete of all-time, will also be taking part in Sunday’s race.
The 2010 Marcialonga will be broadcast live from 10am to 12.10pm on eight European channels, namely NRK (Norway), SWT (Sweden), YLE (Finland), DRTV (Denmark). Ceska Televize (Czech Republic). Eesti TV (Estonia), Greek TV (Greece) and a Russian satellite channel, and, of course, on the Italian RAI.
Entries to the 2010 Marcialonga closed three months before the scheduled date, which is to say at the end of October 2009, and 6.543 athletes – from 28 nations – managed to book their numbers. Almost one third of them are Italians (2.073), the rest of the participants come from abroad, in particular from Norway (2.245) and Sweden (1.216).
The Italian Marcialonga is part of both the prestigious Worldloppet circuit and the FIS Marathon Cup (since 2000).
Info: www.marcialonga.it
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