A great race for a great cause, breathtaking scenes were to be seen today all over the World, and the Croatian part of the race was run in Zadar.
The whole world ran on May 8, 2016. There were 6000 participants running for those who cannot in Croatia at the third edition of this global sport spectacle, and more than 130 000 people globally.
It is a humanitarian race, with income being distributed to fund the medical research of spinal cord injuries. The goal is to find the way to cure this injury, as there are so many people affected with this kind of disability.
The format of this race is unique, as there is no classic finish line to end the race, as half of hour after the start, the catcher car is starts chasing the runners, at a slow pace. It increases speed in time, and the race is finished when the car catches up with the runners. So the winner is the one who gets caught last.
Katarina Lovrantova from Slovakia and Croatian Ironman Dejan Patrčević celebrated in Zadar. Katarina ran for 45 kilometers before the catcher car got to her, while Dejan, the race ambassador, managed to escape from the moving finish line for long 56 kilometers. Nikolina Šustić celebrated in Norway, after the amazing win at last year’s Croatian race.
Among the wheelchair competitors, the best were Tajana Savić (17 kilometers) and Filip Jadrijev (25 km). The global winners were Italy’s Giorgio Calcaterra (88 km), and in the women’s competition Japan’s Kaori Yoshida (65 km).
Even it often sounds like a platitude, after this kind of race everybody is the winner, and what is left is to announce that the next one will be staged in Zadar on May, 7. 2017.
