Athletics, all set for Pan CagliariRespira

Tomorrow, at 10, the long-awaited 16th Pan CagliariRespira-15th Memorial Delio Serra, International Half Marathon of the City of Cagliari, will start. It will have a thousand participants at the start, in addition to the one hundred relay teams (each made up of two athletes, who will run 8 and 13 km respectively) and the thousand participants in the non-competitive 6 km. Today, there were 150 children and teenagers between the ages of 3 and 14 involved in the KidsRun, which saw them, based on their category, compete in the distances of 50, 150, 300, 600 and 1000 meters.
Tomorrow, at the starting line of the 21.097km, athletes from fifteen nations, with Italy leading the way followed by Norway, Great Britain, San Marino, Ukraine, Gambia, Belgium, Holland, Romania, Algeria, Germany, United States, Colombia, Poland and Slovakia. The competitors come from all over Sardinia, but also from thirteen other Italian provinces.
The Pan CagliariRespira thus confirms itself as the most attended event in the regional running scene, and more generally in Sardinian sport in terms of the number of athletes present in a single event. And upon arrival, as already happened in 2022, the sponsor Doppio Malto will offer its beer to all finishers of the race.
Meanwhile, the top runners of the race were presented tonight at the Fiera di Cagliari . Among them, Loitanyang and Jbari, respectively first and second in 2023, El Haissoufi, Benhamdane and the Sardinian Solla. Simon Kibet Loitanyang, a 30-year-old Kenyan who runs for Policiano Arezzo Atletica and boasts a personal best of 1h04'25'', will try to repeat the success of last year's edition: «There shouldn't be any wind, I hope to have a good race after having had several injuries in recent months».
But who knows if the Moroccan Khalid Jbari, 34 years old from Athletic Club 96 Alperia (personal best 1h06'40”), after coming in second in 2022 and 2023, will not be able to break the spell this time. Eyes are also on the 32 year old Ismail El Haissoufi, standard bearer of Atletica Rimini Nord Sant'Arcangelo (1h08'21”). Also from Rimini, but as a standard bearer of Dinamo Sport, comes another of the favorites, the 37 year old Rachid Benhamdane (1h07'02”). Sardinia, however, will try to leave its mark and, among the best representatives of the Island there is undoubtedly Claudio Solla, athlete of the Cagliari Marathon club who, after having signed a precious success two weeks ago in Uta with a time of 1h09'26”, will try to repeat himself.
Among the women, Claudia Pinna of Cus Cagliari (a university association that in this edition collaborated with the Cagliari Marathon club in organizing the event) has already won eight times and remains the favorite. The athlete originally from San Gavino, who has a personal best of 1h12'44'', will turn 47 on December 4 and will compete with other contenders, including her peer Elisabetta Orrù of Atletica Edoardo Sanna (personal best 1h20'36”).
The CagliariRespira starts and finishes at the Fiera, but will embrace the city in a single lap. After leaving the Fiera in the direction of Via Pessagno, the runners will head towards Via Rockefeller and then Viale Diaz, to then travel along Via Roma, Piazza Yenne, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Piazzale Trento, Viale Sant'Avendrace and Viale Trieste. Then Via Roma and Viale Diaz again, to reach Viale Poetto and Lungomare Poetto, before entering the largest green lung of the city, the Molentargius Park, connected to the cycle path that will take the athletes of the Half Marathon back to the fair district through the entrance in Piazzale Marco Polo to reach the finish line.
The KaraliStaffetta (same route as the Half Marathon) and the SeiKaralis (which includes passing through Viale Diaz, Via Roma, Largo Carlo Felice, Piazza Yenne, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Via Roma, Viale Diaz and Piazza Marco Polo) will start at 10.05.
The two-day event organized by Cagliari Marathon club opened today at the Fiera with the Meets Pan CagliariRespira. After the institutional greetings of the vice president of the Regional Council Giuseppe Frau, the municipal councilor for Sport Giuseppe Macciotta and the president of the Promotional Services Center for Businesses Vitangelo Tizzano, the morning was dedicated to the medical-scientific conference “Sport is health”, moderated by doctors Paolo Serra and Filippo Tocco. In the afternoon, the round tables “Sport and solidarity”, in which the associations that adhere to the initiative SeiKaralis-Solidarietà, Sport, Salute, and “Sport and tourism” also took part, where it was emphasized how sport and sporting events can and must be a tool for promoting the territory thanks to the interventions of Tizzano, Macciotta and the municipal councilor for Urban Ecology, Environment and Public Green Luisa Giua Marassi. To close the day, the conference “Athletics: technique and performance”, dedicated to technicians and athletes, where among the speakers there was also the Olympic Dalia Kaddari, a Sardinian sprinter who spoke about training from the athlete's point of view.