Bari: the third edition of "Bari Med Marathon" was presented at Palazzo di Città.

The third edition of the was presented in the council room of Palazzo di Città “Bari Med Marathon”, the 21 km of the Apulian capital aimed at the 22 Mediterranean countries, this year dedicated to France. The event is organized by La Fabrica di Corsa in partnership with the Healthcare section of Confindustria Bari-BAT and with the support of the Municipality of Bari. The race will bring, for the first time to Bari, registered athletes from 19 European and non-European countries, contributing significantly to the attractiveness of the city. The presentation was attended by the mayor of Bari Antonio Decaro, the councilor for Sport Pietro Petruzzelli, the president of the Health Section of Confindustria Bari-Bat Annabella Cascione, the general secretary of the Consular Corps of Puglia-Basilicata-Molise and president of the Tourism section of Confindustria Puglia Massimo Salomone, the honorary consul of France Stefano Romanazzi, the president of La Fabrica di Corsa Antonella Favale, the organizer of the event Pierdavide Losavio and Isabella Murgolo representing the Pink Ambassadors of the Veronesi Foundation.

This year too the event will be held on the last weekend of February, on the days 23, 24 and 25, with a rich calendar of events. Not only competitions and sporting activities, but also events dedicated to the topics of prevention and health promotion.

The calendar of events:

Friday 23 February: Thanks to the participation of the Med Marathon in the charity program of the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, on Friday 23 February, from 10am to 18pm, a gazebo will be set up in the former Treasury room of Palazzo di Città. With a small donation, citizens will receive gadgets from the Foundation's Pink Ambassadors - women who have fought so-called female cancers, i.e. breast, uterine or ovarian cancers, and who have accepted the challenge of training and running a running race. with which we will help support prevention and research to fight cancer. A large representation of the Pink Ambassadors will run in Sunday's races, wearing the pink jersey.

Saturday 24 February: the attention to health and prevention issues continues on Saturday, with the second "Health Day" organized by the Healthcare section of Confindustria Bari-Bat. Also in the former Treasury room at Palazzo di Città, from 10am to 17pm, citizens will be able to undergo free screening made available by companies belonging to the Confindustria Healthcare section: ECG, lipid balance control, audiometric visits, blood pressure measurement and tests on correct lifestyles.

Sunday 25 February: It will be the day dedicated to races, starting at 10.00 from Piazza Libertà for the competitive 21 km and for the "Factory run", the competitive and non-competitive 10 km, the first and only race in Italy aimed at businesses and workers supported by Confindustria to promote forms of corporate welfare through sport. New this year within the calendar of events of the Bari Med Marathon, the introduction of a new race: that of Inline Skating, thanks to the collaboration with the Skaters Association of Bari. It is a 21 km competitive (starting at 9.50 again from Piazza Libertà) which will bring 50 athletes from all over Italy to the capital.

"Bari Med Marathon it's not just a race but it's much more – said Mayor Decaro -. It is an opportunity to be together, strengthening our sense of community, and it is an event that allows us to consolidate important international relations, from a tourist, social, cultural and economic point of view. After last year's edition dedicated to Albania, this year the event has France as its guest of honour, thus continuing a path that contributes to Bari's effort to increasingly project itself as a European capital of the Mediterranean.

There will be many people who, thanks to this race, will arrive in our city and who will contribute to making it known in their countries, with an important positive territorial marketing effect. Furthermore, this year too the union with corporate welfare issues continues and the third edition of Bari Med Marathon is also linked to an important prevention event on health issues. These are all truly significant aspects of this event with which the racing season in our city begins again this year. And it's nice that in recent years so many people have approached these issues, and that now Bari is a city where people want to be together, in events like this, a city that is increasingly becoming a large open-air gym open".

“With the Med Marathon, which heralds the arrival of spring, we are also opening the season of racing and road events in our city this year – Pietro Petruzzelli underlined –. It is a very important event, which in addition to bringing the Bari community together in the streets and squares of our city, is linked to fundamental issues such as corporate welfare, prevention and health. And, as has happened with many events in recent years, the Med Marathon helps us to make Bari increasingly an attractive city and protagonist of sports tourism. In recent years, in fact, we have demonstrated how through the diffusion of sports practice we can work on many sectors: promoting the territory, redeveloping important parts of the city, limiting and reducing future healthcare costs by encouraging well-being, and, above all, creating communities: in fact, every sports point created in the city is a community place where people meet and will continue to meet."

“We are at the third edition of this very beautiful event, which as Confindustria we are happy to sponsor and this year too we renew the union between Bari Med Marathon and Factory Run, a corporate welfare project through sport which invites companies to form teams in in which everyone wears a single shirt, with great results, therefore, both in terms of well-being and the ability to form a team – continued Annabella Cascione -. The previous editions went very well, and we expect a very positive effect on the attractiveness of our territory this year too. Special thanks go not only to all the institutions involved, but also to the companies in the Confindustria Healthcare section who will make this year's novelty possible, that is, the second Health Day of our section, thanks to which we will have Saturday 24 February, from 10am to 17pm, totally free consultations and health screenings dedicated to our entire city community and hosted in the former Treasury room on the ground floor of Palazzo di Città. It is truly an important contribution from companies to the benefit of the entire community, for which we hope for a truly large participation."

“I thank the institutions and organizers for inviting France to participate in the Bari Med Marathon as a guest of honor – declared Stefano Romanazzi – . About three years ago, France and Italy made the relations that bind them even closer thanks to the Quirinale Treaty, and among the areas of cooperation that draw impetus from this very important agreement are culture, sport and tourism. . France is looking at Puglia and Bari with ever greater attention, competing with Germany for the record of tourist presences and local institutions are increasingly promoting exchange relationships between local businesses and French businesses. We will have a large participation of French citizens in this event, which therefore fits very well within the strategies that are being pursued, helping us to further strengthen relations between Puglia and France".

“Sporting events generate around 7,4 billion euros of spending in our country, around 3,6 percent of the national GDP, with a strong commitment from businesses and private individuals – underlined Massimo Salomone –. This sector is growing a lot: organizing sporting and non-sporting events, in fact, produces an important spin-off in terms of hospitality. Bari at the moment, as Puglia Promozione data shows, is growing a lot in terms of tourist flows. For this reason, having participants from 19 countries in the Med Marathon is really very important: people from many different nations come to our city to compete and certainly, struck by the beauty of our territory and the charm of our city, they will return to Bari and Puglia to their holidays. This, therefore, is precisely the positive and important positive domino effect that these events generate: creating and strengthening the attractiveness of the territories".

“We Pink Ambassadors represent the Veronesi Foundation on many occasions in which we promote the themes of correct lifestyles, research and prevention to fight cancer – declared Isabella Murgolo -. This year too, we will be part of the Bari Med Marathon, with our banquet in the room of the former Treasury in Palazzo di Città, through which we will support research through donations and we will be present on the day of the races, wearing our pink t-shirt. We therefore invite our community to participate in these three days of events and to support, with a simple donation, these very important objectives".

“I thank all the public and private partners who this year too have made this beautiful event possible, together with us – concluded Pierdavide Losavio -. We are at the third edition of the Med Marathon and it is a great satisfaction to see registered athletes from 19 countries: not only from Europe, but also from the United States, Brazil, Morocco and other nations. Focusing and investing in sports tourism, in Puglia and Bari, gives a great boost to presences in our territory. Over 50 million people in the world dedicate themselves to running, a truly extraordinary catchment area in terms of potential participation in these events. For this reason, we will continue this commitment in the coming years, a commitment that is integrated within the strategies designed at regional and municipal level to promote our territory and our city. This year, in addition to maintaining a strong connection between the Med Marathon and the themes of welfare, and in this edition also with the promotion of health, we wanted to introduce another important innovation, namely the Inline skating race, also in view of the World championships of this discipline, which this year will be held in Italy, to increasingly open up our city to this sport, always with a view to conscious promotion of the territory".