Turin's Emerald Jewel
The first
international cross country race took place on
March 28 1903 in the Hippodrome in Hamilton,
Scotland bearing the solemn title of the
"Nations’ Cross Country
Championships." Yet all the participants
were subjects of the same king – Edward VII
– and had lost a famous queen, Victoria,
just two years before. At that time, only
England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales could
compete. Only in 1907 was France included,
bringing a slightly more international flavour to
what was now called, for brevity’s sake, the
"Five Nations".
These days more
than 50 nations participate in the World Cross
Country Championships, which celebrates its 25th
edition on March 23. The stage for this
anniversary will be the Parco del Valentino in
Turin, an enormous garden which has a story older
than that of the modern cross country event. The
Park was created 143 years ago by the then mayor,
Count Ernesto di Sambuy, with the intention of
giving Turin an ornamental garden worthy of a
city which would shortly become the capital of
Italy. The project was awarded to a specialist
– Frenchman Barillet Deschamps – whose
task was to landscape the fields to fit the
magnificent backdrop provide by the river Po, the
Monte dei Capuccini hill, which ran down to the
water’s edge, the splendid baroque castle of
Filippo Juvara and the medieval town.
 For over a
century, life in Turin has been closely linked
with the history of the park, and the park has
been closely associated with athletes. Running
and horse races, gymnastics and fencing and even
car races have all been held there. Both Nuvolari
and Alberto Ascari, two names known to fans of
motor sport around the world, triumphed in the
Valentino.
The decision to
hold the World Cross Country Championships in the
park might seem courageous to many. It is
certainly a cultured choice intended to use a
modern event to honour traditions. The IAAF is
offering a show to the citizens by bringing the
athletes to them, rather than hiding the
sport’s champions in some distant field in
the countryside.
But basically,
this is nothing new. The writer himself competed
in cross country events in the Valentino some
forty years ago, running through the fields which
were the birthplace, a century ago of the
"Union Pedestre" precursor of
today’s Federazione Italiana di Atletica
Leggera (the Italian Athletics Federation).
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Valentino Park has been a venue for cross
country races since the turn of the century as
GIORGIO REINERI, who ran there himself, reports
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