Run and collect abandoned waste that you encounter along the way, hoarding residues from the so-called “littering” phenomenon, i.e. the dispersion of small (and sometimes large) waste into the environment. This is plogging, a discipline that in recent years has become increasingly popular among running and trail running enthusiasts and that the establishment of World Plogging Championship has transformed it into a truly international competition, with athletes from all over the world.
The fourth edition of the World Plogging Championship will be held from 27 to 29 September 2024 in the woods of Val Gandino, in the middle Val Seriana in the province of Bergamo. The traditional inauguration ceremony, scheduled for Friday 27 September, will be followed by the pre-race briefing in which the final details on the territory destined for the challenge will be revealed. The following day, Saturday 28th, the athletes who have passed the qualification tests during the year 2024 will compete in a trail plogging competition lasting a maximum of six hours on the paths of Val Gandino.
One night to count how much and what waste the athletes will have collected, to which add the distance and altitude difference covered: all the data will be processed by a tested algorithm that will decide the 2024 world plogging champion. the world title up for grabs will be the Italian Elena Canuto and the Spaniard Manuel Jesús Ortega Garcíawho won the world championship last year in Genoa, an edition (with 80 athletes representing 16 nations) that went down in history because the competing ploggers recovered a total of 3,000 kg of abandoned waste, of which 71% was separated and started for recycling.
Not only will the awards ceremony be held on Sunday 29 September, but the first edition of the urban plogging competition will take place in Bergamo.
Registration for the World Plogging Championship is completely free for ploggers as is hospitality, paid for by the organization itself. However, since it is a World Championship it is necessary to go through a virtual qualification phase which will involve male and female athletes from all over the world. How does it work? Simply register on the web-app www.ploggingchallenge.com, selecting the “Plogging Challenge” path. Through their own personal sessionscarried out individually around home, in the mountains or on vacation, it is possible to accumulate points and defend the top positions in the rankings. The score is calculated automatically by the system, by entering the quantity and quality specifications of the waste collected, as well as athletic details, reported via special apps for smartphones or smartwatches, as well as two photos that prove the performance achieved. The technical office of ERICA soc. coop. will carry out random checks to monitor the accuracy of the results, periodically updating the rankings!
All entries received by the deadline of July 31st will obtain scores that will be counted by the algorithm, which will establish who are the best ploggers in the world selected for the finals of the World Plogging Championship 2024. The novelty this year will be the double ranking: for the first time it will be possible to qualify through the virtual challenge not only for the Trail specialty on Saturday 28th September but also for the Urban plogging on Sunday 29th. The first 40 people in the rankings for the Trail will pass the selection (the remaining 40 will instead be selected via the network of qualifying races ) and the top 50 for Urban.
Roberto Cavallo, Creator of the World Plogging Championship and Competition Director: “More and more practitioners around the world are animating the plogging community! Not just more activists attentive to environmental issues, but real athletes ready to challenge each other with kilometers and leg lunges! This is why, in addition to the qualifying races, we want to increasingly promote the possibility of qualifying through a virtual challenge, so that athletes and plogger enthusiasts from all over the world can compete and aspire to get a ticket to the world championship finals. One thing is certain: the more competitors challenge each other with the qualifications, the cleaner the world will be!”
For additional information and to find out all the updates, you can consult the official website www.worldploggingchampionship.com and follow the updates via the social profiles Facebook and Instagram.
The World Plogging Championship is organized by the International Plogging Committee, composed of AICA – International Association for Environmental Communication, ERICA soc. coop., ACEA Pinerolese Industriale, Erik Ahlström – Plogga, Carlo Degiovanni – Running Valle Infernotto e Sandro Fioravanti – RAI Sport.
