Bologna is one of the major Italian cities, the capital of Emilia Romagna with a history spanning centuries. It is known for its art, for its many cultural activities and also for its excellent cuisine. And now it also aims to become the location for a top-level CrossFit competition: let's talk about Bologna Throwdown.
Born from the idea of Nando Capobianco, owner of CrossFit® NTN, with the fundamental help of Daria Sasanelli and Luca Morassutto, in March 2023 we will see it go down to the floor 260 athletes (probably even more 🤩) of various categories, who will battle to get on the top step of the podium.
Will 2 days of live competition (25 and 26 March) which will require the passing of a first qualifying phase which will see its start as early as next week, more precisely from 14 to 24 December.
But we know more about this one first edition of the Bologna Throwdown:
Index
Technical info
Event name: Bologna Throwdown
Social page: @bolognathrowdown
Qualification Dates: From 14/12 to 24/12 (before the Christmas revelry)
Qualifying WOD: not yet revealed, will be released on 14/12
What categories can enter?
- Individuals Elite M and F
- Individuals Regulars M and F
- Individuals Master 35 M and F
- Master 40 Only M
- Team (MM / MW Beginner)
How many registered athletes go live? 260 Athletes will pass the live show (120 Individuals, distributed in the various categories and 70 Teams of 2 people). But they are working to get more athletes in!
When will it be live? On 25 and 26 March 2023 (before the Easter revelry)
Where will the live take place? The Live will take place in Bologna, at the Biavati Sports Centre.
How to register? To sign up just click on the link in bio of the IG Page and follow the procedure on Judgerules!
Prices? For the qualifying phase the price is €25, for the live it is €65
Who are the partners and sponsors? For now Top Level Modena, Apes Lab and FISIOMPT studio which will give the athletes pre-race treatments or between one wod and another. But there will be several other partners who will make the race a nice village for athletes and the public!
How many workouts will there be? 4 exciting WODs (guaranteed for everyone), in a spectacular location where only the best will access the Final. And there will be great news that the organizers will reveal to us shortly!
The words of Nando Capobianco and Daria Sasanelli
Hi guys, first of all congratulations for the initiative and thank you for dedicating your time to us. To start, can you tell us a little about yourself? Who you are, what you do and where you come from!
Hello everyone, our pleasure to be here to tell you about us and our race.
I'll start: my name is Ferdinando Capobianco, Nando for everyone, I was born in Caserta but I've always lived in Bologna. What to say? Since I was a child I have always been sporty: I practiced Karate, Thai Boxe, swimming and then I approached the world of CrossFit around the age of 22.
Since that moment I have never distanced myself from this sport because I think it is one of the most complete activities there is.
Furthermore, I believe that the sense of community and sharing that is created within the Boxes is unique and exists only in this discipline.
I've been the owner of my Box for four years now and the idea of improving people's lives makes me feel better every day.
I, on the other hand, am Daria, born in Milan and I have a degree in communication sciences. I have always worked in the world of events and at the same time I have also cultivated another passion: photography.
My first introduction to the world of sports photography was when we organized a motocross event where I photographed the riders. I worked for several years then following the Cross World Championships, the Italians and the Lombardy Regional Championship.
Post pandemic I started to wander around with sport and I ended up photographing CrossFit® competitions almost by accident… One day I was by the sea taking some shots of surfers and there was a CrossFit competition on the beach. I approached to take some pictures and from there my passion was born, first at a photographic level and later also at a sporting level.
You should know that I too have started training, above all to better understand this discipline! So, I've been attending pretty much every crossfit competition for a couple of years now!
And I'm very happy about this because it gives me so much satisfaction and fun at the same time!
What a beautiful story Daria! But then what prompted you to switch from photographing to organizing a competition?
After a year in which I did completely different types of events for work in the agency, I went to take pictures at sporting events on the weekends, so there was this double situation.
When the opportunity arose to bring what is my job of organizing events, also in the Crossfit world, I thought: "why not? "
Photography was born as a second job that has now almost become the main one. But organizing events is my world, it's what I've always done!
So, I decided to throw myself into this project together with Nando, just to bring me back to the origins of my real job and I'm very happy because I've found a crazy team, which is very nice to work with and which gives me a lot of satisfaction!
Obviously I will organize the event but I will also be the official photographer!
We had no doubts! By the way, how did the idea of creating the Bologna Throwdown come about?
Well, the idea came about because I [Nando], in recent years I have participated (as an amateur) in various competitions on the national territory and I realized that a large competition had never been organized in Bologna.
Therefore, I thought it would be great to bring our city into a serious racing circuit, with the fundamental experiential contribution of industry figures such as Luca Morassutto and Judge Rules.
And have you already had experience in organizing competitions?
Yup! This year I organized a competition between Boxes, the Bologna Box Competition (we are now on the third date).
It was supposed to be a "small" race but it turned out to be a great success and I saw that there is a great desire among the guys in the garage to get involved and have healthy competitions.
And what, in your opinion, is your differentiating element? Why should an athlete sign up for your race?
For the competition in Bologna we used the best CrossFit® judging team in Italy.
We strongly wanted the movements of the athletes both in the qualifying phase and in the live phase to be judged by a qualified and established staff for years such as that of Project Judge by Luca Morassutto.
We believe that this will allow each athlete to recognize their efforts and that these will not be thwarted by some dubious No Rep.
And how did the partnership with AFFI come about? Why did you enter the functional fitness competition circuit?
Under the advice of Luca Morassutto we decided to immediately give an identity to the race.
Being part of the AFFI circuit will allow registered athletes to be able to take part, based on their placement (the podiums of the race), in the national final from which the athletes who will represent Italy at the next world championships will emerge.
Not only that, membership in AFFI will also allow you to be included in a national ranking so as to give real value to competing efforts.
Athletes will know where they are within an overall ranking of all Championship participants. And further - it will be precisely because of their placements - that at the end of the year, each athlete will be indicated to which category he really belongs. This will ensure they sign up and actually compete on equal terms with other opponents.
For all these things we have decided to "register" the Bologna Throwdown within the functional fitness competition circuit!
We are really happy to have met you! Just to close, can you tell us about your future plans for this race?
Thanks to you and to those who will read us! Our will is that this event becomes a regular appointment for the sports calendar of many Italian CrossFit athletes and not... ❤️ See you at the second edition! Soon!