The historic Piazza Grande in Borgo Maggiore, in the Republic of San Marino, experienced a real marathon party on Sunday 4 September with the third edition of the San Marino Ekiden and San Marino Marathon. On the “queen” distance of athletics both the actual marathoners, who covered the entire 42.195 km, and the teams involved in the Ekiden, the exciting relay marathon involving 5 athletes for each team, measured themselves.
On an individual level there was no battle: lap after lap (a spectacular 6 km “ring” to be repeated 7 times) the advantages of the treads became more and more solid: Riccardo Vanetti (of team bolog), third in the past ) won in 2: 50’15 “in front of Maurizio Bisacchi (Sidermec, 2: 59’16”) and teammate Matteo Amelio (3: 07’15 “); with the same” solitary “interpretation the victory matured by Elisa Benvenuti (Riminimarathon, 3: 17’15 “), who preceded Silvia Torricelli (Atl. Reggio, 3: 25’24”) and Elisa Crescentini (Pod. Arcus Rimini, 3: 36’13 “).
Male Ekiden: the “Comandini surprise”
Instead, there was a lot of battle in the relay race: from the “boxes” of the teams, located under the arcades of Piazza Grande and along the barriers of the finish area, the cheering was on when, fraction after fraction, the duel between the “corporate initiated” team of the San Marino Colombini group and that of the Gabbi Sports Group, the reigning champion Bolognese team (his race record: 2: 26’27 “in 2021), which in edition has had to do without some “spikes”, engaged in the Italian 10 km Fidal championship (staged on the afternoon of Saturday 3 September in Castelfranco Veneto): it ended with the victory of the company group: 2: 28’32 “against 2 : 30’44 “, victory signed by Giovanni Pazzaglia, Marco and Moreno Oppioli, Giacomo Ganci and Michelangelo Parmigiani.
«The enthusiasm that accompanied both the relays and the marathon is the most important result for us – commented the organizer, Samuele Guiducci -; I am particularly pleased with how the participation of “corporate” teams, made up of work colleagues or groups of friends, is developing; for some time in our races we have been promoting this formula that allows many people to get closer to running and above all to have fun in exciting challenges. “
Ekiden female: GS Gabbi record