Month: August 2019

The Chilean’s nightmare spell at Old Trafford has ended and there is little positive to say of an experience from which nobody draws much credit

It is amazing to think that it is less than two years since Arsenal fans were busy appealing to Alexis Sanchez to stay at the Emirates Stadium as Arsene Wenger’s star man edged his way towards a move to Manchester City.

There were no such pleas among the Manchester United faithful before the Chile international sealed a loan move to Inter on Thursday.

Indeed, there can be no understating the disaster that has been his 19-month spell at Old Trafford.

The decision by Jose Mourinho and Ed Woodward to do everything they could to avoid seeing an already-unstoppable City adding Sanchez to their forward line backfired about as spectacularly as any transfer in modern history.

At a time when City are being rightly questioned for the ethical issues behind their rise to dominance, their decision not to break the bank for Sanchez is one which very much lands on the right side of the ledger.

United ended up offering the former Udinese and Barcelona man a £390,000 ($477,000) weekly salary and £75,000 ($92,000) starting bonus, which means he has cost the club around £55 million ($67m) since his arrival in January 2018.

In return, they got five goals in all competitions, a string of desperately poor performances and a dressing room full of players wondering why the guy contributing the least was getting paid by far the most.

It was exactly the sort of scenario Pep Guardiola was keen to avoid having on his hands at City, and which preceded the Premier League champions’ decision to pull out of the race for Sanchez.

“Normally we try to be stable with the wages of the players because I think it is good for the team and stability of the club,” Guardiola said shortly after the attacker signed for United.

“I’ve never put pressure on a club when they believe it is too much. Immediately, I accept that decision and move forward to find another solution. The stability of the club is the most important thing.”

How prophetic that statement has become over time as Sanchez has struggled time and again to have any sort of impact at Old Trafford, all the while raising the salary expectations of every team-mate approaching a new deal and every new arrival entering negotiations.

The more dry-witted United fans would suggest that the 30-year-old’s most stirring performance at the Theatre of Dreams was on the piano during his introductory video posted on social media, and it would be hard to challenge that assertion.

From day one there were queries about exactly what Sanchez would be able to offer United. Many fans quizzed by Goal upon his arrival suggested that if he was to be used as an alternative to Anthony Martial, then his addition was unnecessary in the very least.

Nobody, though, could have foreseen just how disastrous his United career would turn out.

He leaves with a grand total of three goals in 32 Premier League appearances, and but for a stirring performance in the 2018 FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham at Wembley, it is difficult to pick out any matches in which he truly looked like a good fit for United under either one of Mourinho or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The Portuguese seemed not to know how to get the best out of him, while the current manager – who ended up handing Sanchez only four league starts – threw the ball squarely into the Chile international’s court as everyone began to wonder how the situation might be improved.

“I can’t do anything about Alexis Sanchez,” said Solskjaer in February when asked whether he had a masterplan to kick the player out of his funk. “When he plays, he needs to finds himself because we know there’s a quality player there.”

It is undeniable that Sanchez has the talent. We have seen it over a period of many years from Italy to Catalunya to north London. But in Manchester he has looked like a shadow of his former self.

“It’s been a disaster,” former United captain Gary Neville told Sky Sports of Sanchez’s United career. “I have no idea what’s happened. There must be two of him: the one that played for Arsenal and Barcelona and then the one that’s turned up in Manchester.”

While many might wonder whether the British transfer record signing of Angel di Maria in 2014 turned out to be a bigger disappointment, nobody can claim that Sanchez has been any form of success.

The very fact that United had long since been resigned to having to subsidise his future wages elsewhere says much about their desperation to get rid of him. As it stands, they will still be paying more than half of Sanchez’s salary while he is at San Siro.

What happens at the end of his season-long stay is unclear. What we do know, though, is that Alexis is unlikely to ever return to United.

The scintillating performances of his days at the Emirates are nought but a distant memory right now and, while Inter will be hoping that he will prove he can be that player again now that he has been freed from his Old Trafford hell, the last year-and-a-half is a stain which will never be removed from Sanchez’s CV.

Neither will it be something United get over quickly. While Sanchez’s exit was a key part of Solskjaer’s plan to rebuild the Reds, it remains a chapter of the club’s recent history which will not be forgotten in a hurry. Not least on the balance sheet.

It turns out that Alexis Sanchez and Manchester United was a match made in hell. The only good thing to say about the whole episode is that it is now over.

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On Thursday evening in Monaco, the Liverpool centre-back became the first defender to win the prestigious prize, proving the game is changing

The UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award was established all the way back in the 1997-98 season and that year it was given to the one and only Ronaldo, then playing for Inter.

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Midfielders like David Beckham, Fernando Redondo, Stefan Effenberg, Deco and Steven Gerrard took home the prize having subsequently starred in Champions League-winning teams for Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Porto and Liverpool, respectively, while goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was also given it in 2003 even though Juventus lost the final on penalties to AC Milan.

The prize’s format changed for the 2010-11 season and became the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year instead. Andres Iniesta had an outstanding 2011-12, even if Chelsea beat Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals, and his form in Spain’s Euro 2012 win saw him rightly rewarded for his efforts.

But these prizes have often been a carve up of the most creative players and the heaviest goalscorers. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have shared a few between them while all-time greats like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Diego Milito and Franck Ribery have got their hands on it too.

Those were goalscoring or playmaking stars for some of the top clubs in Europe, while Luka Modric’s prize last year could be seen in hindsight as a commendation for a career’s worth of consistency, centrality to the Real Madrid cause and for taking Croatia to the World Cup final.

It is a measure of Virgil van Dijk’s standing in the game that he has just become the first defender to win UEFA’s top individual playing prize.

“It’s big,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp enthused. ” It’s really rare for a defender. It’s such an important sign for football.

“Yes, we all love goals – we want to score them and see them – but more and more and more people are getting excited about defending.

“Virg is an exceptional defender, 100 per cent the best defender in the world, so he deserves that prize absolutely.”

Klopp is dead right: centre-backs are not often in the running for these prizes; Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 and Matthias Sammer a decade earlier standing out as the only two examples in the history of the modern game of Ballon d’Or winning-defenders.

Players in that part of the pitch are expected to be unfussy, to get through their work diligently and to set the platform for the matchwinners further forward to do their thing.

Times are changing in football, however. The emphasis on the collective in the very top teams mean fewer and fewer are operating with outright superstars, around whom the rest of the team is slotted. And, perhaps, in years to come fewer of those will win the individual prizes too.

The top managers like Klopp and Premier League winner Pep Guardiola prefer to have players who submit to the will of the team, operate within a system and who are not self-obsessed when it comes to goals and trinkets.

Liverpool have instead mastered their collective game. While players like Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane can be relied upon to score with consistency, they do so within a collective game plan that places them at the business end.

There were eyebrows raised a couple of summers back when Liverpool declined to pursue any sort of centre-back once Southampton put the brakes on a move for Van Dijk.

It was better to make no signing than the wrong signing in the mind of Klopp and so the likes of Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip got another try. Liverpool did patch things up with Southampton, however, and got their man a few months later for a fee of £75 million ($91m) which, at the time, looked on the high side but in retrospect looks a bargain.

It wasn’t any £75m centre-back that Klopp wanted. He wanted his £75m centre back. Michael Edwards, the Liverpool sporting director, heads a recruitment team which has brought home the goods time and again.

Van Dijk’s club-mate Alisson Becker also took to the stage on Monaco, to collect the Best Goalkeeper prize. What is remarkable to think is that Liverpool effectively spent very little on the pair, with the £142m ($173m) that Barcelona paid for Philippe Coutinho covering both purchases.

Think about Barca’s current predicament. They got €222m (£201m/$245m) for Neymar from Paris St-Germain and did nothing of use with it. The purchase of Coutinho was a dud from the get-go, while Ousmane Dembele could well be used as a makeweight to get Neymar back to Camp Nou. What a mess!

It speaks to the intelligence Liverpool have put into their transfers during the Klopp era and of the confidence they have that they are doing things the right way.

Van Dijk’s award should be considered in that context. Liverpool have given him the platform to demonstrate his class, his consistency, his strength and his vision.

And he has given Liverpool the bedrock they needed for a sixth European Cup.

The defender beat out her club-mates to win the award for Europe’s top player after helping the Lionesses to the World Cup semi-final

England defender Lucy Bronze has won the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award, defeating Lyon team-mates Ada Hegerberg and Amandine Henry.

All three women enjoyed both domestic and continental success this year, having secured yet another domestic title in the Division 1 Feminine, the club’s 13th straight crown in the French top-flight.

Lyon also secured another Champions League title, their fourth straight, defeating Barcelona in the final. 

The 27-year-old Bronze, who joined Lyon in 2017 after departing Manchester City, enjoyed another fine season domestically, while helping England to success at the Women’s World Cup.

She scored her only goal of the World Cup in a 3-0 win over Norway in the quarter-finals, and though the Lionesses fell to the United States 2-1 in the semi-finals, Bronze took home the silver ball as the World Cup’s second-best player behind Megan Rapinoe.

And Bronze thanked her England team-mates in a video message played after the announcement of her victory.

“I’m ecstatic and super humbled to have won the award up against two fantastic players who I know really well at Lyon: two great girls, great players,” Bronze said. “I want to say huge thanks to the Lionesses, the England team. We had a great summer and I don’t think I would have won this award if it wasn’t for them.

“The same goes for the Lyon team. We had an amazing season, we won the treble. I think any one of those girls could have been up here receiving this award.”

Hegerberg, 24, the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or winner, finished second after enjoying another sterling season for Lyon, having scored 20 goals in 20 league games for the champions. She scored seven times in continental competition, including a hat-trick in the Champions League decider, a 4-1 victory for Lyon over Barcelona.

However, unlike Bronze and Henry, Hegerberg did not compete at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, having stepped away from the Norway women’s national team due to frustration over unequal treatment by the federation. 

The Norwegian star was going for her second UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award, having won the trophy in 2016.

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Henry, meanwhile, scored four goals last season for Lyon en route to the domestic league title, her 11th with the French giants.

She also found the net twice in the Champions League, including once in the semi-finals against Chelsea, which saw Lyon emerge 3-2 victors on aggregate.

The 29-year-old Henry also scored twice for hosts and quarter-finalists France in the World Cup this past summer, including an extra-time winner in the round of 16 against Brazil.

But it will be another year of disappointment for Henry, who has been a finalist for the award four times but has yet to come away with the victory, finishing second and third twice each. 

The 2019 Chinese Classic Recitation Conference came to a close on Aug 23 in Jinan, Shandong province, after attracting more than 40 participating groups staged yinsong performances, a traditional, melodic recitation of Chinese ancient literary works.

This year, over 3,000 domestic applicants as well as foreigners from the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh registered to take part in the preliminary selection of the event, uploading their yinsong videos to win an opportunity to perform at the two-day event.

These videos have since gained more than 50 million online views. Launched by the China Confucius Foundation in 2017, the annual event aims to pass down the time-honored cultural heritage, which has survived for around 3,000 years, and promote the beauty of Chinese language and traditional Chinese culture.

The Foundation will also launch a charity project to bring Chinese classics to the libraries of schools in remote areas, giving impoverished students closer access to cultural treasures.

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Zheng Xiaoyu, an 18-year-old woman in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, recently hit headlines in the city as she made a will to leave all the 10 houses under her name to her mother.

She is among the 200 people who have come to the Urumqi branch of the China Will Registration Center since it opened to the public on Friday.

According to the center, it expanded its branches from large eastern and southern cities to Xinjiang in the hope that it can benefit more people as the region’s population and wealth continues to grow due to more economic policy support and other services offered by the central government.

Zheng has lived with her mother since her parents divorced. She said that if she has an accident, other relatives including her father and grandparents would inherit her legacies legally. “My mother purchased these properties through years of effort, so I can’t leave them to others. A will can help me clarify the inheritance,” she said.

Zhai Wei, director of the Urumqi branch, said that making a will is not unique to the elderly.

According to Zhai, just a few days ago, an internet celebrity in her 20s came to the branch. Since she makes frequent business trips nationwide, she is afraid of having an accident.

“She has a number of virtual properties online and she wanted to let her parents know about them by making a will,” Zhai said. “Wills can help people figure out how many properties they own and avoid disputes if they have legally binding documents.”

“For those who have two houses or fewer of no more than 140 square meters and fewer than two bank accounts, we provide the service for free,” she added.

The average age of those who make a will is trending lower. According to a white paper released by the center, the average age was 71.2 last year, down from 77.4 in 2013.

By June, about 145,000 wills have been deposited at the center’s branches nationwide since its establishment in 2013.

The center now has 12 branches. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou each have two branches, while Tianjin; Chongqing; Urumqi; Nanjing in Jiangsu province; Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region; and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, each have one.

The center hopes that by 2024, at least 600 million Chinese can better understand the need to make wills at an early age.

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Many listed Chinese commercial banks are expanding retail banking, which has made a greater contribution to their operating incomes.

The contribution of retail banking set a record for China Merchants Bank Co Ltd, a national joint-stock commercial lender headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

By the end of June, the proportion of retail loans to total loans and advances of the group was 55.04 percent, up 61 basis points from the end of last year. The proportion of operating income of retail banking of the group reached 54.48 percent, up 4.61 percentage points year-on-year, said China Merchants Bank in its 2019 interim results announcement issued on Saturday.

“We believe the advantages of the retail banking business will be highlighted further amid economic growth downturn and faster interest rate liberalization,” wrote Li Shanshan, Xing Yanran and Lu Yilin, analysts at BOCI Research Ltd, in a report on Monday.

The monthly active users of CMB’s two main apps reached 85.11 million as of June 30, up 5.01 percent from the end of last year. Its investments in information technology reached 3.63 billion yuan ($508 million) in the first half of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 63.87 percent, or accounting for 2.81 percent of the bank’s operating income during the same period, according to the announcement.

“As the annual budget for investments in financial technology is set to be no less than 3.5 percent of the annual operating income of the company in the previous year, we can expect to see more investments in the second half of 2019,” said the BOCI Research report.

The asset quality of CMB continued to improve as the bank posted a decline in both the nonperforming loan balance and the NPL ratio during the first six months of this year.

Its NPL balance decreased by 72 basis points from the end of 2018 to 53.22 billion yuan at the end of June. Its NPL ratio also dropped 13 basis points to 1.23 percent over the same period. Meanwhile, CMB enhanced its risk resistance capability, increasing the NPL coverage ratio by 35.94 percentage points to 394.12 percent.

Net profit attributable to shareholders of the bank increased by 13.08 percent year-on-year to 50.61 billion yuan during the reporting period.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co Ltd, another national joint-stock commercial lender, saw the net operating income of its retail banking increase by 12.32 percent year-on-year to 37.06 billion yuan in the first half.

As of June 30, the balance of personal savings of the group increased by 29 percent from the end of last year to 835.81 billion yuan. Over the same period, the balance of personal loans of the group rose 8 percent to 1.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 43.12 percent of the total loan balance.

The growth of the bank’s retail savings replaced its liabilities which were at higher costs, and therefore enhanced the stability of its liabilities and lowered its liability costs, said Liu Xinyi, president of SPD Bank, at a media briefing on Friday.

In the first half, the group posted 18.99 percent growth year-on-year of its operating income to 97.6 billion yuan and a 12.38 percent increase in its net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company to 32.11 billion yuan.

Bank of Jiangsu Co Ltd, a city commercial lender whose total assets reached 2.05 trillion yuan, also recorded an increase of 54.39 billion yuan in its retail loans from the end of last year to 324.92 billion yuan at the end of June. The balance of its retail loans accounted for 34 percent of its total loan balance.

Over the same period, the number of its private banking clients grew by nearly 20 percent. Private banking refers to banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks to high-net-worth individuals with sizable assets.

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A robotic bird secretly carrying a drone was showcased during the World Robot Conference in Beijing last Tuesday.

Footage shows the robot, called Wind Rider, flying while being controlled remotely, flapping its wings just like a real bird.

“This robot can only glide using the wind or fly with electric power. It can fly with power outage for a long time,” according to Cai Yu, the CEO of Bee-eater Technology. “It is just like a real bird – for example, frigate birds can stay in the air for 3 months and some other birds can fly over 10,000 km in 8 days without eating and drinking. It also has the gliding option, so, the efficiency is high,” Cai added.

The World Robot Conference took place for the fifth consecutive time in Beijing from August 19 to August 25. In the exhibition area covering 52,000 square meters, various kinds of robots, including industrial robots, service robots, special-purpose robots, biomimetic robots, and intelligent logistic robots were displayed.

RUPTLY

 

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The son of Barcelona and Ajax legend Johan Cruyff has been looking back on his time at Old Trafford

Jordi Cruyff believes he joined Manchester United a year too early but insists not playing regularly was nothing to be ashamed of when fighting Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham for a place in the starting line-up.

The former midfielder and son of football legend Johan Cruyff moved to Old Trafford from Barcelona in 1996.

Aged just 22 when he signed, his three seasons in Manchester were curtailed by injury and, despite the club lifting three Premier League titles during his spell, he only played enough minutes to earn one winners’ medal.

The Dutchman admits his switch to England – with a new league and new culture – probably came too soon.

“When you take a step like going to Manchester United you need to be mature enough, and I was probably one year short of that,” he told BBC Sport.

“You have to adapt. It was different, to have dinner at 5pm or 6pm – I’d never seen that.

“I was probably the youngest person in the village where I lived and that was tough. Now it’s a different city, a different vibe – the city is alive.”

He also struggled for fitness at United which further hampered his chances of nailing down a place in Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

“I fell from one injury to another and I could never really get a run and show the manager he could count on me. When Ryan Giggs was injured, I was always injured – and that’s my fault. As a coach, you want players who are ready when you need them. I see that now myself.

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“Training-wise, I was always on the level that was necessary, but I didn’t play a lot and I probably didn’t bring what I could do in training to the games.”

However, despite struggling to make the grade, Cruyff is not too hard on himself when he considers the star quality of the players he was up against when battling for a first-team spot.

“If you know you’re going to play 30 minutes every three weeks you make a decision – do I want to stand out by scoring a goal? You can see that in a few games – there was a time when I was just trying to score goals, and others when I was trying to participate in the game and enjoy it.

“But with the injuries, I could never catch that train and have a stable season. When I look back at that team – Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, and then the likes of Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham and Andrew Cole – not to have played much is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Now 45, he is managing in the Chinese Super League with Chongqing Dangdai Lifan. After United, he played for Alaves and Espanyol following a loan spell with Celta Vigo. He spent two years in Ukraine with Metalurh Donetsk before a season with Valletta in Malta where he scored 10 goals in 17 league appearances.

Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest man, has just completed his takeover for a reported €100m and the plan now is to invest in top young talent

Nice’s derby match with Marseille on Wednesday promises to be an extra-special encounter for it will mark the dawn of a new era at the Allianz Riviera – and perhaps Ligue 1.

English billionaire Jim Ratcliffe – the richest man in the UK, with a fortune of €10.6 billion (£9.9bn/$12.1bn), according to Forbes – has led the takeover by Ineos, a multinational petrochemical company, which is poised to transform the club’s fortunes. Although no figure has put on the deal, it is widely reported to have exceeded €100m (£90m/$110m).

Shrewd transfer business has allowed Nice to firmly establish themselves as a top-10 side in Ligue 1 over the last four years, but they have been unable to keep hold of their top stars, such as Mario Balotelli and Hatem Ben Arfa, both of whom they could only afford to sign on short-term deals, and both of whom ultimately left on free transfers.

It was a situation that frustrated fans, who protested against the previous board’s unwillingness to invest in the team last January, when not a single player was bought, despite an obvious need for a centre-forward after Balotelli, who had already grown disgruntled with life at the club, was allowed to join Marseille.

That Patrick Vieira led the side to a seventh-placed finish in Ligue 1 was miraculous. 

Now, however, the former Arsenal and France midfielder is set to get some attacking toys to play with, with only the uber-rich Paris Saint-Germain able to significantly outmuscle the Mediterranean side financially. Ratcliffe’s fortune is worth twice that of Monaco owner Dimitri Rybolovlev and more than 10 times that of Marseille owner Frank McCourt.

The Brexit-campaigning 66-year-old, who has stakes in both cycling and sailing teams, seems an unlikely candidate to invest in the world of French football, yet after failed attempts to buy Manchester United, the club he supports, and Chelsea, there is a belief that Ligue 1 offers a strong investment opportunity.

“We want to help improve the image of French football and the league,” Bob Ratcliffe, his brother, told a media briefing as the deal was made official.

“Ligue 1 is undervalued compared to the Premier League, for example. There are big clubs in France, so it’s a difficult challenge. The more big clubs in Ligue 1 there are, the better it will be. There must be four French sides in the Champions League.”

For the time being, that will have to wait. Instead, there is a focus on the mad dash to complete a summer’s worth of transfer business in the five days before the window shuts on September 2. 

Due to the impending takeover, Vieira’s side only signed Khephren Thuram, the 18-year-old son of former France international Lilian, before the club changed hands. In the meantime, they lost a key attacking component in the form of Allan Saint-Maximin, to Newcastle.

The impasse, though, is over and six players are expected to arrive over the coming days, among them forward Kasper Dolberg from Ajax, Napoli’s Adam Ounas and winger Alexis-Claude Maurice, who caught the eye of Arsenal, Lyon and others, from Ligue 2 side Lorient. 

Perhaps the most symbolic deal, however, could be the one to draw Stanley Nsoki from PSG. Marseille have been tracking the 20-year-old defender for months but are set to be put in their place in French football’s evolving hierarchy by their nouveau-riche neighbours, who are now favourites to complete a deal. 

But while there is clearly an appetite for success, the new owners are acutely aware that it will be tough to achieve overnight, particularly given the timing of their purchase.

“The transfer window has been difficult, but we hope to use it in the last few days,” Bob Ratcliffe said.

“Our ambition is to be in the Champions League in three to five years. We want to compete with PSG, Lyon and the other big clubs in France.

“We want to compete to finish in the top four in Ligue 1 and become one of Europe’s best training centres, like Ajax, for example, so we want to work on the infrastructure and the training grounds.”

At a time when many of France’s traditional big guns are ailing, Ineos claim to have learned lessons from their struggles and will not adopt a gung-ho youth policy, the type of which has sent Monaco into a tailspin that sees them reside at the bottom of the table. 

“I don’t think that we will be a club that will buy players aged 27 or 28. We will focus in particular on talented young players, but we are aware that a team needs experience to progress.

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“If we want to make this project a success, it’s very important to invest in young players,” Ratcliffe added, no doubt with a nod to OM, whose big takeover from American businessman Frank McCourt appears headed down a dead end of trouble.

With Bordeaux struggling in the wake of a high-profile takeover from across the Atlantic and Monaco failing to get things right just along the coast, there are plenty of warning signs for Nice fans who might already be dreaming of the club reprising famous European wins over Real Madrid, Barcelona and Ajax. 

Ineos, it is also worth remembering, own Swiss second-tier side Lausanne, whose fortunes have not taken off under their ownership as had been anticipated.

“We are fast learners, these problems have been rectified and we are already seeing the benefits,” Jim said on Monday.

With plenty examples of how not to do it in France evident at the present time, if Ineos, Vieira and the players get things right, this could be a deal to revolutionise the hierarchy of Ligue 1.

Il 26/27 dicembre a Campitello di Fassa (TN) si svolgerà la prima tappa del Campionato Italiano Alpin Cup di arrampicata su ghiaccio e dry tooling.

Scende la colonnina di mercurio e con l’arrivo del grande freddo si apre la stagione di gare dell’ice climbing. Il 26/27 dicembre a Campitello di Fassa (TN) si svolgerà la prima tappa, delle 4 previste, del Campionato Italiano Alpin Cup, valevole per la Coppa Italia di arrampicata su ghiaccio e dry tooling organizzata dal Comitato Ice Passion.

La competizione si svolgerà su struttura di arrampicata artificiale attrezzata per il dry tooling;

Le iscrizioni sono aperte a tutti e si svolgeranno presso la struttura di gara dalle 14.00 alle 15.00 del 26 dicembre. La quota d’iscrizione è di 20 Euro.

Le qualificazioni, che si disputeranno il 26/12 con inizio alle 14,00, sono previste su quattro itinerari da salire con la corda dall’alto. Per ciascun itinerario saranno possibili 2 tentativi. le finali si svolgeranno lunedì 27 con inizio alle 14,00.

PROGRAMMA

Domenica 26 Dicembre
14,00 – 15,00 iscrizioni
16,00 inizio qualificazioni

Lunedì 27 Dicembre
14,00 inizio Finali

INFO
www.icepassion.org/
E’ gradita conferma via mail o telefono della Vs. presenza:
[email protected] – Tel. 3485274410

Prenotazioni alberghiere – Ag. Soggiorno Campitello
Tel 0462 750500

CAMPIONATO ITALIANO ALPIN CUP

26-27/12/04 – CAMPITELLO VAL DI FASSA
08-09/01/05 – VAL PASSIRIA (BZ)
15-16/01/05 – RIVA DI TURES (BZ)
22-23/01/05 – MONGUELFO (BZ)

icepassion.org Ice Master Daone 2005 Raduno dry tooling Arco Expo Grivel Expo Eider

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