From Tuscany to Muscat for marathon

Anuroop Athiparambath - Muscat, JAN 19 - Sixty-five-year-old Nesha Shah with her group of 18 has come all the way from Tuscany, a city near Florence in Italy, to run in the 2018 Al Mouj Muscat Marathon. Shah’s group is all above 50 except for a youngster. The oldest in the group called ‘Podistica Pratese’’ was 73-year-old Machello Calami and the next senior runner was Mario Ceccarell, 70. All the 18 runners took part in various events at Al Mouj — 7 took part in marathon, 3 in half marathon, 6 in 10k run and 2 in 5k run. “We enjoyed running in Muscat. It was great fun. It was worth coming to Muscat for this wonderful experience,” said Nesha, immediately after completing her 10k run with her core group, who joined hands at the finish line. Domeneia Samma and Maria Silvestri (both 64 years old), Dorianna Cirri, (65), Claudia Berti (50) and Angela Bindi (51) were some of her friends who completed the race. And for Ceccarell, this was his 40th marathon. When asked through an interpreter, Ceccarell, who had travelled across the world for participating in some famous marathons, said she fondly remembers the New York Marathon 2000 among them. The middle-aged group which turns their running events later into holiday and tour hopes to explore Oman too in their first visit to the country. They hope to come again in the next edition of marathon in Muscat. The group will enjoy the stay in Muscat for couple of days and leave for Italy on Sunday.