Townwide Sports Week Showcases Youth Competitions and Parental Engagement
The entire town serves as a backdrop for the competitions scheduled for the seventh edition of the “Week of Sports”, which from last Monday until Saturday, sees all elementary and middle school students competing in various sports disciplines.
The dedicated organizing committee, in collaboration with the Municipality and the Pro-loco, has arranged seven intense afternoons of competitions for young athletes aged nine to fourteen: athletics, with the 4×600 relay and the 60-meter sprints, basketball, five-a-side football, tennis, duathlon (running and cycling), volleyball; as well as sailing regatta and demonstrations with practical tests of rowing sports such as canoeing, rowing, and Venetian rowing, which revive the tradition of Gardesani fishermen.
Participation and Engagement
A broad range of activities for an initiative that over the years has gained increasing prominence and success, reaching around three hundred athletes competing on fields set up even in the squares of the historic center, from where the event officially kicked off on Monday afternoon with the traditional parade of participants.
“The number of boys is growing ever more, and they are increasingly focused on making a good impression in the competitions they enter,” emphasizes Alfonso Patrimonio, sports councilor. “It’s a real shame that the same cannot be said for their parents.”
Parents’ Presence and the Importance of Sports
“I don’t intend to criticize, but unfortunately, this is the only absence we’ve recorded over the years, and I can’t understand why: even if parents are busy with work commitments, I believe they should never miss these events. A child’s eyes always seek, at the edge of the field, those of their parents, and they cannot be satisfied just with the eyes of strangers,” he states.
“This is a suggestion that the organizers have often reiterated, but evidently those directly involved have not deemed it necessary to heed it,” the councilor comments sadly.
Purpose and Conclusion of the Event
The presence of parents remains, however, the only goal that has not been achieved, though the event can boast of successfully combining sport and school—two worlds that are not always close.
“Indeed, this is one of the most important aspects of the Week of Sports,” confirms Patrimonio, “because teachers do not always accept or understand the educational role of sport: a student who actively participates in a sport is still sometimes seen as someone using excuses not to study.”
“Our fields also engage teachers and professors, and we hope this helps break down the barriers that no longer have any reason to exist.”
The Week of Sports will conclude next Sunday at 5:30 p.m. with awards ceremonies at the ex-tennis court and a final refreshment for all.
Giuditta Bolognesi
