On Sunday 27th January the 50km Italian Championships will take place in Gioiosa Marea (Messina) with an intermediate finish at 35km and a series of side events for senior, U20 and U18.
This is certainly the best way to remember, in her city, the great Italian walker who died prematurely on May 21, 2015 after a long illness.
The program is as follows:
08.00 - 50km for men and women
08.30 - 20km Senior and U23 - men
10.30 - 20km Senior and U23 - momen
12.30 - 10km U18 male and female
50km men
There are fourteen entered athletes, some of which will probably stop at the intermediate 35km mark.
The starting list, led by Marco De Luca, includes all the best Italian athletes at the time of which we present the accreditation marks in the following table.
| Athlete | PB 50km | PB 35km | SB 50km 2018 | SB 35km 2018 |
| Dei Tos Leonardo | 3:59:48 - 2018 | - | 3:59:48 | DNF |
| De Luca Marco | 3:44.57 - 2016 | 2:28:53 - 2010 | 3:55:57 | 2:33:18 |
| Antonelli Michele | 3:49:07 - 2017 | 2:38:33 - 2018 | 3:53:00 | 2:38:33 |
| Agrusti Andrea | 3:55:09 - 2018 | 2:37:58 - 2018 | 3:55:09 | 2:37:58 |
| Chiesa Stefano | 4:11:07 - 2018 | 2:39:08 - 2018 | 4:11:07 | 2:39:08 |
| Tontodonati Federico | 3:49:27 - 2015 | 2:32:36 - 2018 | - | 2:32:36 |
| Giupponi Matteo | 3:49:52 - 2015 | 2:34.43 - 2015 | DNF | - |
| Caporaso Teodorico | 3:48:29 - 2016 | 2:45:36 - 2019 | - | - |
At the intermediate finish line of the 35km, would be the stop for Agrusti, Tontodonati, De Luca, Caporaso and also for Massimo Stano has decided to try a test on this distance.
50km women
There are eight entered athletes.
There are two athletes whose names stand out from the others.
Mariavittoria Becchetti who can now be considered no more a debutante on 50km in virtue of two results obtained during the past season (Taicang: 22nd in 4:40:15 - Berlin: 10th in 4:31:41).
Eleonora Anna Giorgi who on the 50km is just a debutante despire her paste experience in 20km.
Both have decided to opt for the intermediate 35km finish line.
In the other side events the most interesting names to keep in mind are:
- 20km men (senior): Vito Di Bari, Nicolas Fanelli
- 20km men (U20): Riccardo Orsoni, Aldo Andrei
- 20km women (senior): Eleonora Dominici (returning after a season with lights and shadows following a mononucleosis) and Diana Cacciotti also returning after a long period of absence.
- 20km women (U20): Andrada Lavinia Lacatus who already in Rome in 2016 stopped the stopwatch in an interesting 1:41:12 for a sixteen-year-old at the time and Simona Bertini back from an end of season starring in U18 with third place at the Europeans and the sixth at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.