BASELGA DI PINE – The races of the 3rd World University Speed Skating Championship will start today, 3 March, at the Ice Rink Piné. More than a hundred athletes, coming from 15 Nations, will compete until Sunday.
Everything is ready at the Ice Rink Piné, the Olympic Oval in Baselga di Piné, to host, for the first time in Italy, the FISU World University Speed Skating Championships. However, the venue already hosted the student speed skaters in the past, i.e. at the 2013 Winter Universiade in the Trentino region, as speed skating featured as an optional sport on the Trentino Universiade sports programme.
After the World Championships, the European Championships, the World Cup and, in December 2013, the Winter Universiade Trentino 2013, the Ice Rink Piné will be once more the core of another main international event dedicated to this ice sport featuring National and Worldwide champions.
Until 6 March, more than a hundred athletes, coming from 15 Nations (Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, China, Chinese Taipei, Estonia, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and the USA) applied for the third edition of World University Speed Skating Championship. University athletes, from all over the world, will be on the starting blocks for an entire week of competitions and events featuring some of the world’s best skaters.
The young Italian team, trained by Enrico Fabris (2 gold medals and a bronze one at the Olympic Games in Turin 2006 and multiple medallist at the WU 2005 & 2007) doesn’t fear the representatives of the Netherlands, Russia and Poland who’ll be the athletes to beat. The Italian team will be led by Giacomo Mirko Nenzi (who is in Fiamme Gialle Predazzo), the Italian sprint champion and gold medallist at the 2013 Winter Universiade on the 1,000 meters, who’ll skate with his team mates Riccardo Bugari (CP Pinè), Davide Ghiotto (Noale), Daniel Niero (Noale), Cristian Sartorato (Noale), Alessio Trentini (Vg Pergine), Linda Bortolotti (CP Pinè), Laura De Candido (Pieve di Cadore) and Giulia Lollobrigida (Air Force).
The different competitions and races (Ladies and Men: 500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 meters, Ladies: 3,000 meters and Men: 10,000 meters, the Team Sprint and the Team Pursuit relay races and Ladies and Men mass-start races) will take place from today, 3 March to 6 March from 16:00 to 21:00. Among the other events, on Friday 4 March, the Ice Rink Piné will host a big rock and dance-music concert with all the local bands and on Sunday 6 March at 21:30 the closing Ceremony and the passing of the official FISU flag will take place accompanied by a concert of mountain choirs.
The main international events on the Piné Oval will be organized by the experienced Organizing Committee led by Enrico Colombini and the organizers Luca De Carli and Nicola Condini, that can count on more than a hundred of local volunteers working at the Ice Rink Piné for over 10 days of captivating sport and amazing events.
LIVE ON EUROSPORT
Live transmission of today’s events from 20h00-21h30 on Eurosport 1.
(Source: 2016 WUC Speed Skating OC)
