DI SANTO AND GRANDELIS, TWO WINNERS AT LA SGAMBEDA IN LIVIGNO
It was necessary to wait for photo finish to have two athletes on the men’s podium, Biagio Di Santo and Tullio Grandelis in front of the finish athlete Teemu Kattilakoski. Among women the first place goes to Cristina Paluselli, followed by Lara Peyrot and Anna Santer.
Livigno (SO) 18.12.2005 — It was the same excitement and fascination of the previous 15 editions. Exciting: at the start of La Sgambeda there are important athletes; fascinating: together with world and olympic champions there are more than 1200 amateurs. For the first part, dedicated to top athletes and to have men’s podium we have to wait for photo finish. At the start there were all big athletes who had to compete with the cross country specialists: Andrus Veerpalu started the race but during the race had to give the leading position to the Marathon specailists ( the athlete form Estonia finshed the race at the 23rd position behind his club mate Jack Mae at the 19th position). The second part of the race led Maurizio Pozzi from Bormio( 8th position) and Roberto de Zolt who left the Fiamme Gialle and had to show to be still valid as he won t La Sgambeda 2003.
The race was procedding and De Zolt was leading in front of five athletes and among them Biagio Di Santo and the carabiniere Tullio Grandelis. Ten metres before finish when the audiance almost celebrated his victory, De Zolt stumbled and fell and Di Santo and Grandelis went on for the victory. Thanks to their final sprint they both arrived at the finish red line together and photofinish confirmed that they are both winners. The third position goes to Teemeu Kattilakoski from Finland and Stanislav Rezac, the last year FIS Marathon Cup winner was 13th and Marco Cattaneo was fifth.
Women podium goes to Italy and Marco Sella, Italian men and women long distance team coach. During the race three Italians Cristina Paluselli, Lara Peyrot e Anna Santer were at the leading position at the final sprint the strongest was Paluselli from Trento (even if she wanted to retire last year) in front of Lara Peyrot who got feber during the week and Anna Santer who is debut atlete and gets third position.
But la Sgambeda is not only the opening FIS Marathon Cup race but it is also an event which more than 1200 cross country skiers waited for. Marzio Deho, the mountain bike marathon rider who took part at this corss country race in Livigno (… he returns each summer in Little Tibet to race for la Pedaleda which he won for three times). He was interwied by Icarus, Sky Sport 2 program, dedicated to extreme sports.
