Cetilar Performance: PharmaNutra donates two new handbikes to the athletes of Obiettivo3
Published: 12 September 2019 12:01
Always very close to the world of sport thanks to the Cetilar® brand, this year PharmaNutra has started a sports, technical and human training course dedicated to young athletes, called Cetilar Performance. An original and ambitious programme which since last March has already introduced two important collaborations to the world of karting and paracycling.
This week, the commitment by Cetilar Performance has been further enhanced by the purchase of two handbikes for the athletes of the Obiettivo3 association, who will be able to continue their qualification path for the Paralympics of Tokyo 2020.
Objective3 is a project founded in 2017 by champion Alex Zanardi, which aims to recruit, set up and support both tangibly and economically disabled people who want to start practising a sport. So far, almost 50 athletes have been recruited, who continue to nurture the Paralympic dream with passion and sacrifice. The support of PharmaNutra and Cetilar Performance has been fundamental to allowing Obiettivo3 to launch the careers of two new and promising paracyclists who have recently received new handbikes.
The first to receive the handbike was 33 year-old Erika Scrivo from Calabria in the province of Vibo Valentia, but who has moved to Florence in recent years. Erika, who worked as a cook, lost the use of her legs in 2007 due to a serious accident during a tour. The rehabilitation process has been long and complex and not without obstacles, but it has allowed her to understand the importance of sport from a therapeutic point of view. After trying out wheelchair basketball, thanks to the collaboration started by Obiettivo3 with spinal centres, Erika met the coach Piero Amati, who told her about the project, recruiting her to the team. And her first impact with the handbike was amazing, as in her first important race she immediately won a silver medal at the Italian paracycling championships in Bassano del Grappa.
The other athlete who received a handbike thanks to the support of Cetilar®, is Antonello Pizzi from Molise. Just a year ago, in the summer of 2018, Antonello was the victim of a car accident while training on his bike. The accident put him in a wheelchair at the age of 25, forcing him to completely rethink his life. Once again, sport has helped: thanks to the mediation of his physiotherapist, he was put in contact with Obiettivo3 during his first rehabilitation phase. After the accident, he thought he wouldn’t be able to pedal anymore. Zanardi and his staff put him back in the saddle, giving him once again, in the words of Antonello himself, the desire to live and fight.