La Mandria Park

J Medical Cross, first act at La Mandria Park

Welcome to La Mandria Park! On Sunday morning we start running on the route of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships scheduled for 11 December. In Venaria Reale (Turin) it's time to test the organizational machine and to earn a place in the national team, that will have to keep the italian flag high in the home edition of the continental event, for all those athletes who longs to it. The J Medical La Mandria Cross will start at 9.30 on Sunday morning with the under 20 races, will continue with the senior test of the short distance cross country, 2 km long, attended by those aiming to be called up in the relay, then will give space to the other youth categories before celebrating the best races from noon onwards, with the women's (8km) and men's (10km) senior and U23 events. All races, as known, will be highly indicative for the composition of the team that will take part to the Italian national team three weeks later. The event will be useful for studying the details of the course, understanding its pitfalls and knowing how to manage them when we have to face the strongest athletes in Europe. Start and finish lines, changes of direction, ascent and descent are identical to the EuroCross course both in the short and in the long lap, the only difference is the crossing of the Castello della Mandria, and in particular of the evocative Galleria delle Carrozze, which will only take place on the day of the European Championships and not in the test.

The day of competitions will be preceded by a technical conference on the benefits of cross country running on track activity: "Getting your feet dirty to run fast" is the meeting that will be held in the squire hall of the Castello della Mandria, from 3 pm, with the introduction by the manager of the italian middle-distance runners Federico Leporati and the speeches of the coaches Claudio Pannozzo, Silvano Danzi and Gianni Crepaldi, the sports doctor Paolo Cavallo and the J Medical physiotherapist Federico Bristot.