The redevelopment works of the gym in the Ardigò school are anxiously awaited by the wheeling companies. “The rink has already been the subject of work – recalls Cristina Albanese, vice president of the Skating club –, our problem was having permission to host over 100 people during the tests. The next interventions will allow an attendance of 450 spectators”. The situation still remains complicated for large synchronized skating groups, made up of 16 to 20 athletes who ride in a compact formation. Federal regulations require runways of 20 by 40 or 22 by 44 metres, while the Ardigò is 36 by 18 metres. So the company asked for a few more hours of hospitality at the Tacoli gym, which is compliant. Spaces are always contested. “For the last training sessions before the competition – recalls Albanese – we are still forced to look for paid tracks outside Monza, starting at 60 euros per hour, between Biassono, Albiate or Bergamo”. The Sharks, the two wheelchair hockey teams, were also forced to move. With the work on the Bellani school gym, training and matches moved to the Ambrosini, in via Solferino. But the stress test of the structure, with full-scale activity, is scheduled for September when competitive activity resumes. “We hope to feel comfortable and to be able to stay there – hopes Mattia Muratore, captain and president of the Sharks Monza –. At the Bellani gym we had already been in derogation from the rules of our championship for years, for logistical reasons. There was no lateral space for the referees and for the benches”. At the Bellani school, after the renovation of the gym it will be the turn of the building that houses the classrooms. If the space in the courtyard were to reduce, there would no longer be the possibility of entry for athletes on special competition wheelchairs.
Work is also in progress at the gym of the Zucchi middle school: “We hope that the delivery times of 10 September will be respected – fingers crossed Sergio Visconti, secretary of the multi-sports club Baita Asd (volleyball and seven-a-side football) -. If the works were to going beyond September 30th, it would become a problem for us to find other spaces, at significantly higher costs, for our over 200 athletes including boys and girls and open athletes, i.e. adults”. The first batch of works dates back to 2020, during the Covid period, for the safety of the ceiling, bathrooms and roofs. Then disputes with the contracting company over the metric calculation and financial evaluations stopped the construction site.
Cristina Bertolini
