ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Create a bridge between Italy and China through sport, with a trail running race that also becomes a possible tourist flywheel. It is the idea behind the twinning between the Dolomiti Extreme Trail (DXT) and the Fuga Glacier Extreme Gongga 100, a race that has recently ended between the peaks of the Hailuogou glacier in the west side of the Sichuan region. The event, with its three distances (100K, 60K and 40K) has a vertical elevation from 1,600 to 4,500 meters, on the third highest mountain in the world. This second edition saw the presence of 3,300 athletes, Chinese and international, who challenged themselves on an extremely challenging path characterized by the unpredictable weather. “One scenario characterized by the green of the pines, not the rock like us in the Dolomites, and the presence of the glaciers, with a temperature not particularly cold. But the race is extreme, because it starts from 1,600 meters and climbs up to 4,500”, explained in an interview to the agency Italpress Andrea Cicini, Ceo and founder of the Matches group and responsible Sponsorship and Marketing of the Dolomiti Extreme Trail. “This adventure was born to try to create a bridge, then join Italy and China through sports, exchange the winners of the most extreme races. We like DXT have 5 different sections, including 103 km, which is our queen race, and also the Gongga has 100 km. So we joined the two races and the winners of their respective competencies, man or woman, are guests in their respective countries,” he added. Beyond the purely sporting aspect “the interesting part is starting from this race, but then use the sport also as a touristic flywheel to deepen new spaces. Let’s talk about mountain, so about a still virgin territory. The sport of beauty has that when it goes on these dimensions, which are also very interior, it deeply respects that space. And the same thing in China. So – Cicini emphasized – the union of these races is to create an exchange of athletes. But when an athlete moves, families and an induced move. So it becomes a flywheel also of cultural deepening of the respective places. This is a bit of the heart we try to develop this idea. Another dream is to bring more and more Chinese athletes of the trail running, but also Asian, to use our Dolomites as academy path: come to deepen and see, in the same space, how the trail running develops on our territory”.
At the level of movement, the trail running “is a discipline that in the last 5-6 years is exploding. There are several races, different circuits that are moving in Italy and internationally. He’s following the line, I can’t say about the ironman segment, but he’s going in that direction, especially because the mountain is a very personal and introspective thing.
There are endurance trail running that also have 300-400 km, so also impacting, but above all it is to see how each of these athletes has a life story, it is a messenger of their own path. Face this race with a smile, in a way often even extreme, because then when you start you do not know what happens at the weather level and what else. So it is a market in vertical growth,” Cicini concluded.
-Photo: Italpress-
(ITALPRESS).
