30th WMRA World Mountain Running Championships in the City of Massa/ITA

The Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL), the City of Massa and the Local Organising Committee of the 30th WMRA World Mountain Running Championships are looking forward to welcoming you to Casette di Massa on 14 September 2014.

Stage of the competion will be a fascinating and unusual course housed in one of the quarries of the "Bacino di Gioia" from which  the marble was extracted that gave shape to many historical masterpieces of the Italian art .

 On September 14, 2014, Casette di Massa (Italy) will host the 30th edition of the WMRA World Mountain Running Championships. It is the eighth time that the World Championships have been held in Italy. From 1985 to 2008  the main annual event of the mountain running was named World Trophy, even though individual titles were also assigned.

Beginning from italian edition of Campodolcino 2009, the event became known as the World Championships. Last year at Krynica Zdroj (Poland) 329 athletes coming from 39 nations were present at the start of the races of the WMRC 2013.

THE WORLD CHAMPIONS 2013
MEN
Seniores: Philip Kiplimo (Uganda) – Team: Uganda
Juniores: Nekagenet Crippa (Italy) – Team: Czech Republic

WOMEN
Seniores: Alice Gaggi (Italy) – Team: Italy
Juniores: Mandy Ortiz (USA) – Team: Great Britain

Sea, Marble, Mountain: her is Massa and its World Championships

A journey through a story made of hard work. Steep paths a few steps from the sea, mountains not easy to tame.This is the stage of a World Mountain Running Championship whose actors are the marble, the quarries and the marble work process. From Forno and Casette, two small villages of Massa, an adventure will start that lead the athletes of the 30th World Mountain Running Championships to the entrance of the quarry, which is also the start of the junior women race.

The last stretch of the course, dug into the “Bacino di Gioia”, worldwide known for its prestigious marble extractions, represents the core of this World Championships project. An amazing scenery, an impressive white tunnel that goes through the mountain before the last steep ascent which leads to the upper terrace of the quarry  facing the sea from the distance. A race course which is a hymn to the quarry that has represented “life” for this area since 2000 years ago.  

The course, technically varied, is an atypical route for the “only-up” formula, with a overall drop imposed by the nature of the territory itself, with descent stretches interrupting  very challenging ascents, both on macadam roads and 4wd roads. The final stretch of the course (approximately the last 4 km) go through an area whose entrance is accessible, for security reasons, only to work personnel.

MASSA –  Reason for the medal

A town of strategic importance, situated on the Gothic Line, that underwent atrocious reprisals and raids and devastating bombing, causing the death of hundreds of citizens and the almost total destruction of the town. The population, forced to evacuate, had to seek refuge in the mountains and in the nearby villages, suffering hardship and distress. They took a prominent part in the partisan war and with the return of peace faced the hard work of moral and material reconstruction with dignity and courage. 1944/1945 – Massa

HISTORICAL background

Situated in a basin surrounded by steep and rocky mountains, the town of Massa developed over a narrow band of flat land covering an area of ​​about 94 square kilometres.

Although it rose up in the early Middle Ages, its origins are unquestionably set in the Roman times, when near the “Frigido” river, in a place not far from the present town, the first human settlements appeared. It was first cited as “ad tabernas Frigidas” in the “Tabula Peuntingeriana” (the Peutinger Map) dating back to between the second and fourth centuries AD that shows the overland routes of the time.

In those days, the area was probably a resting place for travellers moving along the consular path called the “Aemilia Scauri” that led from Pisa to Luni. The oldest document about the town dates back to the year 882 and is preserved in the Archbishop’s Archives in Lucca where, for the first time, there was mention of a village called "Massa Prope Frigidum”.

Important archaeological finds attest, however, human presence on the territory in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras. Sure evidence of this are the remains of several tombs, inside of which furniture and weapons were found. The town of Massa most probably owes the origin of its name to the medieval period and probably means "farm, landed property."

The art carved in the marble

Marble from the Greek Island of Paros and from the Apuan mountains. A good piece of meat, as the stone cutter told Fidia after the block of marble had been cut, a good piece of meat as the stone-cutter told Michelangelo when the column fell at the feet of the cave with a big thud in the powder which slowly dissolved.

The Master, who was in search of the raw material, looked around making sure that no crack dug a groove. The pure, white and blinding polished marble has always been a source of life for art, as Buonarroti told. The figure is already inside. You only have to eliminate what is in excess, said Michelangelo.

The sculptor becomes an athlete in his effort which can be titanic, is a poet who imagines and tells an motionless and dynamic story and has the same feeling as the physiologist. He is not creating a mannequin, but a figure with bones and muscles moved by tendons and ligaments like the ropes in a sailboat. Which ideal figure can be but an athlete ?
 

Source: Massa – 30th WMRA World Mountain Running Championships