Despite being closed in the rain
The great party that the Palestra Ginnastica Ferrara Asd organized to honor Labor Day 2024 concluded in the splendid setting of Piazza Ariostea, transformed into a sports facility. open-air, green and inclusive” to allow the holding of the 65th International Labor Trophy “City of Ferrara” street skating race, for the third consecutive year, is the Asd Pattinatori Spinea of Venice, which also takes part in the 3 ° “Gilberto Silvagni” Memorial for the “little ones” races. But the winner, also considering the prelude of April 30th with the Ferrara Inline Roller Games, the inclusive promotional day of roller sports, organized with the provincial delegations of CIP and FISR, is all sport, the engine of social aggregation and catalyst of cultural change !
Let’s start in the news from Tuesday, the one dedicated to the Ferrara Inline Roller Games: while the skating clubs, coming from all over Italy and also from Indonesia and China, began to try “the most beautiful track in the world”, all the disciplines roller sports, with particular thanks to Ferrara Hockey for the great participation, found space at their disposal, with particular attention to the world of disabilities, with the aim of making skating increasingly a way to promote integration and social inclusion, fully agreement with the spirit of “L’Italia dei Giochi”, the partner program of Milano Cortina 2026 for which the event has been selected and which aims, between now and the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, to encourage a greener and more open to all of sporting activity in our country, so that sport merges with the City, going out into the open air and showing how there is a healthy, inclusive and “true” way of occupying urban spaces.
This brings us to May 1st Ferrara Inline – International Labor Trophy “City of Ferrara”, which on Wednesday transforms the central square of the Herculean addition and of Ferrara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its Renaissance, into the most sought-after circuit for wheeled challenges. An Ariostea Square full of athletes (540 registered athletes), participants in the recreational-motor tests, families, technicians, old glories… coming from all over Italy.
The morning runs fast, with the little ones’ races interrupted only by a short break which serves to give free rein to the litter of First Steps, very numerous as always, and thus arriving at the natural conclusion with the awarding of the third Memorial “Gilberto Silvagni” at Skaters Spina (Ve).
The program continues immediately after lunch with the races of the major categories, starting from the very fast sprints, followed by the eliminations and finally arriving at the great novelty of this year, the spectacular “Team-Sprint”, a two-man relay over 400 metres, characterized from the “American-style” push gearbox, in the straight opposite the finish line, a test that immediately proved to have a great impact during the preliminary rounds, the last meters run in the dry because then the rain this year too does not spare the races and impact on the finals of this competition, but not preventing the program from being brought to a conclusion, with the successes of Camilla Beggiato and Chiara Vio (Spiena Skaters) and of the Bellusco Skaters with Stefano and Damiano Galliazzo, father and son who, the expression of a beautiful generational bond present in the Square, they win the last test of the day!
At this point it is time to take stock, to reward not only the individual tests but also the combined rankings for the awarding of the two individual trophies to Ilaria Carrer (Pol. Casier – she received the prize wanted by the organization in memory of Mara Bagnolini) and Giuseppe Bramante (Sicilian working for the Rovigo Skating Club – he was awarded the Giorgio Burani Memorial, promoted by the Achilli family).
In the award ceremonies, in a podium area where the PGF also wanted to bring its “Red Bench”, symbol of a commitment that the association is carrying out against gender discrimination in the sporting field, the Regional Councilor took turns Paolo Calvano, the municipal representatives Andrea Maggi and Angela Travagli, the General Secretary of World Skate (the world skating federation) Roberto Marotta and his Sports Director Francesco Zangarini, the FISR Federal Councilor Fernando Leando Naroli, the representatives of the Italian Timekeepers Federation (who delivered the representation prize sent by the National President Rondinone), the AVIS Municipal President Sergio Mazzini, as well as, naturally, the President of the Ferrara Gymnastics Gym, organizer of the event, Eng. Franco Mantero.
All this to arrive at the final ranking of the 60 associations present. As mentioned, the 66th “City of Ferrara” Labor Trophy goes to the Asd Pattinatori Spinea, followed by the Panathlon Award from the Rovigo Skating Club, with that of the Olympic and Azzurri Association to the Casier Sports Club, that of the FICR to the Pertichese Skating Club and the Estense plate from the Chamber of Commerce of Ferrara and Ravenna at Alte Ceccato Club.
The rain also forced the cancellation of the afternoon’s recreational-motor test, the RetroRace with traditional skates dedicated to the memory of Paolo Campi and “all those who now observe the races from up there”. But the group that arrived to take part still celebrated, a very large group this year given the choice to organize the lunch-reunion of the World and European Champions “until 1990” in Ferrara in conjunction with the races, which this year were dedicated to the memory of Mara Maiani Bagnolini, CONI Gold Star for Sporting Merit.
Days of great “Sport Events”, as stated in the logo launched by the Palestra Ginnastica Ferrara Asd to distinguish its events, which for this reason have not ended: on Sunday, in fact, at 5.30 pm in the Sala Estense, there will be the “premiere” at the Teatro di “Io Giuro – manifesto fragili”, a show where the body and motor skills become an expressive tool for the educational path of children with intellectual and relational disabilities of the Fragile group of the Ferrara ASD Gymnastics Gym! All thanks to the patronage and collaboration of large institutions: European Commission, Emilia-Romagna Region, Municipality of Ferrara, Ferrara Chamber of Commerce and the sports institutions World Skate, CONI, Italian Timekeepers Federation, UNASCI, Panathlon District Italy, National Association Olympic and Italian Athletes, CIP Emilia-Romagna and, naturally, by the Italian Roller Sports Federation under whose aegis the races are held. Also joining the list of patrons is the Estense Foundation, which provided the volumes on the City to pay homage to the foreign delegations and prestigious guests present in the Square.
Of fundamental importance is the increasingly strong partnership with AVIS, with the certificate of merit of the renewed patronage of the National Headquarters, so that the message that doing sporting activities and donating is always present and strong.
Furthermore, it is worth underlining the cultural action promoted thanks to UNASCI and Bradipolibri who donated copies of the book “Iron Mark – The lanes of Marco Dolfin, swimming surgeon” (printed with the contribution of Sport and Health) to the event, given as gifts to the companies Sportswomen present, to promote a cultural change that leads us to an increasingly inclusive society through sports practice.
