MARCIALONGA ALL MADE OF STARS

7.000 skiers at the 39th Marcialonga in Trentino region onJanuary 29, 2012

Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa ready to welcome stars and ski lovers

Several events on Saturday 28. Marcialonga Stars among them

‘Olympic Stars’ group and other champions at the start

 

 

In two weeks time,Italy’s Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa will hostItaly’s most renowned long-distance cross-country race. Marcialonga is considered the ‘Queen’ of the Italian ski marathons and this year will welcome several XC superstars, such as Petter Northug, Jens Arne Svartedal, Espen Bjervig, Jörgen Brink, Martin Koukal and Mathias Fredriksson among others. On the women’s side, Ukrainian Valentina Shevchenko will battle it out against 2011 winner Seraina Boner and Swede Sandra and Jenny Hansson, with the Italian Confortola, Valbusa and Santer ready to inflame the Italian crowd.

Over 7,000 participants will show up at the start of the 39th Marcialonga next January 29 in Moena, but the show will start off on Saturday 28 at the XC stadium in Lago di Tesero, the same that hosted the FIS Tour de Ski eventual legs last weekend.

The Marcialonga Stars event is a non-competitive race for charity and every year it welcomes tv personalities, journalists, politicians and sport superstars. It is supported by the Italian Association against Cancer (Lega contro i Tumori) and next January 28 it will welcome an authentic ‘Olympic Stars’ group, which includes Salt Lake City 2002 gold medal (30k) Gabriella Paruzzi, Salt Lake bronze medal (SuperG) Karen Putzer and Turin 2006 gold medal (Relay 4x10k) Cristian Zorzi, among others. Sailors Giulia Pignolo, Giovanna Micol, Larissa Nevierov and Laia Tutzo andItaly’s road cycling champions Maurizio Fondriest and Giberto Simoni will also be taking part in the Marcialonga Stars event.

Thanks to cold temperatures, snow cannons have been constantly at work in these days in Val di Fiemme and the track might be considered almost entirely set. The Val di Fiemme side is ready, and so are many parts of it in Val di Fassa too.

As well as in the past years, Marcialonga is part of the FIS Marathon Cup, other than being included in the Ski Classics series and the Worldloppet calendar together with Sweden’s Vasaloppet and Switzerland’s Engadin Skimarathon, among others.

Info: www.marcialonga.it