PRESS RELEASE NO. 20
Faenza, May 30th, 2015
PRESS RELEASE NO. 20
43rd 100KM DEL PASSATORE
HONOURS GO TO CALCATERRA!
Giorgio Calcaterra also took out the FIDAL Italian national title for the specialty. Second place to Pavlov from Russia and third place to Rickfles from the U.S.A..
Unrepeatable! Calcaterra, once again, wins the 43rd edition of the 100km del Passatore in a time of 7:08”05” and does so for the 10th consecutive time. At the same time he also adjudicated the FIDAL Italian national title which, for the 14th, was held on the occasion of the “Florence-Faenza”. Today’s victory confirmed Calcaterra at the greatest all time athlete in the specialty, not to mention the living legend of “world’s most beautiful” 100km road race.
Calcaterra finished 9”27” in front of Russian ultra marathon runner Dmitry Pavlov who improved his 4th place in 2014. Chad Rickfles, the American running his first “100”, completed the podium after an excellent race.
The “Passatore” started in Florence’s via dè Calzaiuoli on the crack of 3.00pm with the classic starting gun being fired by Andrea Vannucci, the city Councilor responsible for Sport and Giordano Zinzani, President of the “100km”, in the presence of Eugenio Giani, President of the Italian National Olympic Committee. The race began with 2,415 athletes of the record enrolment of 2,504.
The Italians Marco Ferreri, Calcaterra and Hermann Achmuller together with Russia’s Pavlov quickly jumped into the lead reaching the Fiesole (7.5km) in 32’31”. After 1h11’13” at Vetta le Croci (16.5km) the lead trio was composed of Calcaterra, Ferrari and Achmuller who proceeded together to reach Borgo San Lorenzo in 2h25’55”.
Shortly after Ronta (38km) Calcaterra went on the offensive and began setting up a lead on the others reaching Casaglia (48km) with a 3’ on Achmuller and 6’ on Ferrari. Behind the frontrunners Italian Andrea Zambelli, Pavlov and the American Rickfles gradually climbed up the race ladder. On the road down to Marradi Calcaterra progressively increased his lead. Achmuller paid the price for his effort and was forced to retire from the race.
At Marradi Calcaterra had become unreachable taking an 8’ lead on Zambelli and more than 10’ on the outsider Ferrari, who were followed by Pavlov at both San Cassiano and Brisighella where an excellent Rickfles was running in third place.
From then on there was only Calcaterra on his own, acclaimed by the crowd present in Faenza’s Pizza del Popolo who celebrated his win as never before with a massive welcome. Ten consecutive wins: no words are necessary friends, only a bow to his performance.
As regards the female athletes, as Calcaterra crossed the finish line, Nicolina Sustic from Croatia was in the lead in the category with a clear lead on fellow Croatian Veronica Jurisic.
Tomorrow, Sunday May 31st, the race will officially conclude at 11.00 when we will know how many athletes will finish the race. Certainly the finishers will exceed the 1,738 of 2014.
Press Office
