The second part of the season begins, and Park World Tour Italy sets out towards new goals. At the Italian Championships, the elite women win the title. Bronze instead for the men’s team.

On the weekend of September 13–14, the athletes of PWT Italia competed in Lagdei, in the Parma Apennines, taking part in the Italian Relay and Long Championships.

Saturday 13th, it was relay day. In the men’s elite, Fabio Amadesi, Marco Di Stefano, and Sebastian Inderst delivered a solid performance, taking third place (+4’17’’ behind the winning team, Gronlait), despite the very young first two legs and some physical issues for Inderst. But the real triumph came from the women’s team: Annarita Scalzotto, Caterina Dallera, and Jessica Lucchetta took the lead from the very first leg and held it until the finish line, claiming the long-awaited title of Italian Relay Champions.

The athletes were carefully and passionately supported by Russian Svetlana Mironova, former long-distance world champion and now a professional coach, who has been working with the team as a technical trainer for a year. Having her by our side during the weekend was undoubtedly a precious help for the team.

The Italian Relay Championships are the main goal of the year for us at PWT Italy. A team race that can only be won by joining forces, no longer thinking about individual performances but about how to balance the group in the most successful way. This year, moreover, the victory also represented a comeback after the difficult month following Mattia’s passing, and the absence of our top athlete.

As team manager Gabriele Viale underlines, it was important for the team to be there: “For us, it was very emotional. In the last week, we tried to recover our energy. We studied the best strategy, and then Jessica Lucchetta took on the responsibility of the toughest leg. For us, it was a victory guided from above. A joy in the memory of the tragedy that struck us, and a way to honor Mattia in the best possible way, as his mother Erica also highlighted. We managed to transform the emotions of a tragedy into energy, coming here to stay united, and so this is a team victory. August was a tough month for us, and we tried to give our all. It was hard to ask Jessica for something special, but she decided to race. Sport is part of her family, and here she wanted to dedicate something special to Mattia.”

Jessica Lucchetta, with just a few words, shows her strength and determination: “Last year Mattia won, this year it’s me.”