The world figure skating championships in Prato

LAWN – The world figure skating championships, compulsory specialties, will be held in Prato. This is not an absolute first time only for the wool province but also for the whole of Tuscany.

The event is from 26 to 28 September at the Prato sports hall, PalaKobilica, and almost 200 athletes from various nations of the world will arrive in the city. The event is organized by Primavera Prato, a company which has more than 120 members between the youth and senior sectors, in collaboration with the DLF Pistoia and with the patronage of local institutions. The compulsory specialty will see athletes engage in technical exercises to be developed on a predefined route. In total there are 58 exercises to choose from, which are then evaluated on difficulty and technique.

“We strongly wanted to bring such a world-class event to Prato – comments Marina Magelli, president of Primavera Prato -. This year all the various roller world championships will be organized in Italy and we applied for figure skating and found success at a federal level. The Cadet, Jeunesse, Juniores and Seniores categories will compete, both male and female”.

To find out if there will be representatives from Prato at the world competition, we will first have to wait for the Italian championships, which will also be held in Prato at the PalaKobilica from 29 May to 2 June. In the men’s category Mattia Danesi and Niccolò Mariotti have qualification ambitions, in the women’s Desirèe Cocchi (who however will also have to pass through the European qualifiers). “For us, the World Cup represents the culmination of over a decade of work to promote figure skating in Prato and Tuscany – concludes Magelli -. A path that continues to be successful despite all the infrastructural difficulties that we have to overcome year after year. Now we ask the institutions to stay close to us and help us from a logistical point of view for the best possible success of the event”.

For the area it will also be an opportunity for tourism development. In fact, bookings are already underway from all over the world: Germany, Spain, United States, Chile Paraguay, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, just to name a few. “A source of pride for the city – underlines the deputy mayor and councilor for sport, Simone Faggi -. An event that has the full support of the administration and the municipal machinery and which will export the image and sport of Prato all over the world”.