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Jubilant Italian, 93, finally overturns athletics ban

A record-breaking 93-year-old athlete has been given the green light to take part in competitions once more – two years after he was told he was 'too old' to compete.

Jubilant Italian, 93, finally overturns athletics ban
The 93-year-old Italian runner (not the one pictured) will be able to take part in competitions again. Photo: Stòlic Forlan/Flickr

Doctors decided to call time on Antonio Nacca's competitive running career in March 2014 – shortly after he broke three world records in his age category an indoor athletics championships in Novara, Piedmont.

Even though Italian pensioners are famed for their vitality, medics claimed the retired policeman's abnormal cardiac rhythm, a condition known as atrial fibrillation, made competing too dangerous at his age.

But after Nacca spent two years appealing the decision, even finding two independent sports doctors, who deemed him fit to run, Turin's regional athletics commission has said he will be allowed to return to competitions this weekend.

Nacca, who has been training hard for his return, told La Stampa of his joy at being allowed to take part.

“I'm extraodinarily happy. The last two years have been a real paradox – I've still been running to keep fit, but have been unable to compete,” he said.

“It's not as much fun, because you don't get any formal recognition.”

The competitive pensioner only took up athletics at the age of 56, after spending the majority of his adult life doing no more sport than playing for the police force football team.

“I decided to take up athletics after I dropped my daughter off for a race meet one day and noticed that there were people my age doing it,” he told Novarrasport.

Shortly before he was forced to stop, Nucca broke records in the over-90 age category, running 800m in 4m 16s, 1500m in 8m 33s and 3,000m in 18m 06s.

“My biggest victory came in 1988, when I finally gave up smoking.”

On Saturday, he will be hoping to set a new best when he laces up his running shoes for a 400-metre race. 

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ACCIDENT

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident

Thirteen people, including German tourists, have been killed after a cable car disconnected and fell near the summit of the Mottarone mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident
The local emergency services published this photograph of the wreckage. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco

The accident was announced by Italy’s national fire and rescue service, Vigili del Fuoco, at 13.50 on Sunday, with the agency saying over Twitter that a helicopter from the nearby town of Varese was on the scene. 

Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps confirmed that there were 13 victims and two seriously injured people.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that German tourists were among the 13 victims.

According to their report, there were 15 passengers inside the car — which can hold 35 people — at the time a cable snapped, sending it tumbling into the forest below. Two seriously injured children, aged nine and five, were airlifted to hospital in Turin. 

The cable car takes tourists and locals from Stresa, a resort town on Lake Maggiore up to a panoramic peak on the Mottarone mountain, reaching some 1,500m above sea level. 

According to the newspaper, the car had been on its way from the lake to the mountain when the accident happened, with rescue operations complicated by the remote forest location where the car landed. 

The cable car had reopened on April 24th after the end of the second lockdown, and had undergone extensive renovations and refurbishments in 2016, which involved the cable undergoing magnetic particle inspection (MPI) to search for any defects. 

Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Twitter that he expressed his “condolences to the families of the victims, with special thoughts for the seriously injured children and their families”.

Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini told Italy’s Tg1 a commission of inquiry would be established, according to Corriere della Sera: “Our thoughts go out to those involved. The Ministry has initiated procedures to set up a commission and initiate checks on the controls carried out on the infrastructure.”

“Tomorrow morning I will be in Stresa on Lake Maggiore to meet the prefect and other authorities to decide what to do,” he said.

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