MARCIALONGA APPROACHES QUICKLY

Marcialonga to kick off on Sunday 27 January in Fiemme and Fassa valleys (Italy)

Over 500 participants to the Marcialonga Light 45k-long event

Entertaining activities and gigs for everybody over the last week-end of January

Official opening ceremony on Saturday 26 January

 

 

Why is it called Marcialonga Light? Simply because it is shorter than the 70k-long event. The Marcialonga Light competition covers 45 kilometres from Moena to Predazzo and runs along with the main race (scheduled next 27 January), however, calling it ‘Light’ sounds pretty reductive as any of the participants jokingly claim at the end of it. ‘It is a real, funny, but also demanding race, that’s what it is’, were the words spoken by many participants in last year’s ‘Light’ event.

In 2006, the Marcialonga OC created this new race in order to allow everyone to fully enjoy the Marcialonga atmosphere, and be part of a real competition, independently of how fit they could be or how much they had been training in previous weeks and months. Over 500 competitors from 17 countries will be showing up at the start of 2013 Marcialonga Light, and the majority will be from outside the country. Multi XC Master World Champion Laura Calissoni Colnaghi of Italy will be attempting to double her 2008 victory (she closed second in 2006, 2009 and 2011), but she will be facing strong opponents from Scandinavian countries.

Flipping through the Marcialonga Light history book, many skiers who made their appearance on the podium have been afterwards competing in important world event. Italy’s Florian Kostner (2007 winner) and Antonella Confortola (first in 2010 and 2011), for example, are both part of the Italian ski-marathon national team, while Val di Fiemme-born Nicola Morandini (winner in 2009) was the first Italian skier in 2012 Marcialonga standings (7^th place).

As in previous years, several entertaining events and activities will be organised on the race-day and over the last week-end of this month. Marcialonga not only means sport but it has a strong cultural soul, and that is why every day and night from Thursday 24 onwards a special event is put on in both Fiemme and Fassa valleys.

On January 24, an historical exhibition named ‘Mondiali di Fiemme’ (World Championships in Val di Fiemme) curated by the Trento Historical Museum Foundation, will be opening at Villa Flora in Ziano di Fiemme at 6pm, while a movie about Marcialonga and its long history will get on screen at 8.30pm in Ziano theatre. Live music will follow with Norwegian and Italian musicians on stage from 9.30pm.

On Friday night (from 9pm) a massive brass band concert will be taking place at Tesero theatre, and on the following day (from 6pm), the Marcialonga opening ceremony will officially tear the curtain up with live music, dancers and fireworks.

Both on Saturday and Sunday, Cavalese city centre will host a food-tasting village open all day. A torchlight show is scheduled on Friday 25 in Molina, and second one will take place in Campitello on Saturday 26.

The complete side-events program is available online at www.marcialonga.it