ATHLETICA

VATICANA IS WITH THE PPOOR: COPPA DEGLI ULTIMI

Coppa degli Ultimi is born and there is the Open Letter to the Marathoners.

The important news of this edition of Acea Run Rome The Marathon is Coppa degli Ultimi, prepared - in Papa Francisco’s style –by Erwin Alfredo Bendfeldt who lives in a shelter of Roman Caritas. He has had a particular life: he ran away from Guatemala when there was dictatorship, and he was shot in the head. Believed to be dead, he was thrown in a mass grave where he was found by a priest that arrived there to bless the corpses. Now he lives in Rome, helped by Caritas and some good friends. This prize will be donated to the last pacer who will pass through Piazza Pio XII – Piazza San Pietro, as a symbol of perseverance, strength and equality with the first winners. For Coppa Degli Ultimi there will be a landmark and a symbolic finish line in Piazza San Pietro, with the presence of the Vatican Gendarmerie Music Band and of the poor who will deliver the monthly “Osservatore Romano di Strada”.

The sculpture has a base made of recycled wood, the center is made of tuff while the figure has golden details and was blessed by Papa Francesco just like the medals of the marathon.

LETTER TO THE MARATHONERS - On March number of the monthly magazine “L’Osservatpre Romano di Strada” - entirely dedicated to sport seen from the excluded and the last ones’ point of view - the open letter has been published: the poor right to the marathoner, with the title ‘Dear friend who runs on the same streets as us”, attaching thank you from the poor who live in the streets to the marathoners and the organizers of the marathon. ‘The street’ is shared. It will be published next 5th March and it will be delivered, particularly on Sunday in Piazza San Pietro on the occasion of the Angelus of Santo Padre, including Sunday 19th March.

VIKTORIIA – The 31 year old Ukraine Viktoriia Gudyma will be back in Rome. She arrived last year in Italy with his 10 years old child, directly from Warsaw where he found shelter right after the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. After being reached by the organizers of Acea Run Rome The Marathon, Viktoriia let us know that he wanted to participate anyway in the marathon but that she did not have anything with her. She landed without any luggage in Fiumicino airport and thanks to the action of Athletica Vaticana, Viktoriia and her child were hosted for a few days in the institute of Suore Adoratrici del Sangue di Cristo in Via Labicana. The organizers provided Victoria with new shoes to run with and a kit of technical shorts and T-shirts, so that she could be at the start in Fori imperiali and fulfill her dream of running the Marathon of Rome.

OPEN LETTER: THE POOR WRITE TO THE MARATHONER

On Sunday 19th March, on the occasion of the Marathon of Rome, there will be the delivery of the Coppa Degli Ultimi to the last ones.

Dear friend who runs on the same street that every day, in the rain or the sun, is our home. We are the ones you see sitting on the sidewalks or on the stairway of a church while we ask for help. And also those who you quickly pass by while we pull our possessions stored in a suitcase or in some supermarket bag.

We thought that our lives had nothing to do with yours. Yes, there is the street that united us, but for you it is a gym, while for us it is our whole world. But it is not like this. We are sports people too. And not just because we often happen to wear a jumpsuit, not always in the right size: besides, beggars cannot be choosers.

The reason of this letter is not to tell you about our troubles. At the end, life, especially in these times, is not always easy for everyone. The reason is that we want to say: thank you! Yes, thank you! Thank you because you live this great and important event that is the Marathon of Rome, not just as a sports competition, but also as a friendship and solidarity race. Thank you because you know how to show that the achievement to accomplish is not the podium, but a goal to reach. And it is nice to accomplish it together.

A special thank you goes to the organizers who, showing a great sensibility towards social distress, have involved through Athletica Vaticana also “L’Osservatore della Strada”, preparing our symbolic finish line in Piazza san Pietro where you can find us cheering you and delivering our newspaper. Maybe it is the first time that such honor is reserved to the invisibles.

For this reason, we want to add a gift to our thank you. It is the “Coppa degli Ultimi” that we like to think that can be given to whoever will be the last to arrive. A friend of ours has prepared it in a shelter where he lives. He is called Erwin Alfredo Bendfeldt and who follows this newspaper knows him by reading some of his pomes in the pages of “chants from the suburbs”. He ran away from Guatemala when there was dictatorship. He was shot in the head. Believed to be dead, they threw him in a common grave where he was found and saved by a priest who had arrived there to bless the corpses.

Now he lives in Rome assisted by Caritas and some good friends. He is, like us, a “last one”. Or maybe like each and every one of us when we forget that we are all on the same boat and... on the same street.