Adamello Ultra Trail speaks Polish: Roman Ficek conquers the 170 km

Ponte di Legno. The new king of Adamello Ultra Trail 2024 comes from Poland. It is Roman Ficek (above in Giacomo Meneghello’s photo) who conquers the crown in the 170 km race, the longest distance of the ultra trail in the Pontedilegno-Tonale area, now in its tenth edition.
Ficek crossed the finish line in Vezza d’Oglio shortly before 11:00 on Saturday 21 September, stopping the stopwatch in 25 hours 46 minutes and 27 seconds. A result that matured on Friday evening, when after taking the lead in the race, he gradually increased his distance from the competition.

The 170 km men’s race was in fact decided there. At first it was defending champion Daniele Nava (in the photo by Thomas Martini) who took the reins of the race in the first 75 kilometres of the course, leading until the passage over the Passo del Tonale. Despite the effort, his gap never rose above 10 minutes, with Russian Sergej Nalkin and Pole Roman Ficek at a safe distance.
After eight o’clock on Friday evening, it was therefore Nalkin who took charge of the situation, but his attempt to lunge failed after an hour. At the Ponte di Legno life base, in fact, the Russian went off course, losing a lot of time and leaving the way clear for Nava and Ficek to catch up. At that point it was the Pole who took the lead, increasing his advantage over the course of the night.
At midnight the gap was just over 10 minutes, by 7:00 it had risen to over 40 minutes. A progression that Daniele Nava was unable to keep up with despite his long experience at Adamello Ultra Trail, closing his race with a delay of 52:06 from Ficek at the finish line in Vezza d’Oglio. Behind them, Sergej Nalkin’s action also faded, slipping to fourth place, with Canadian Galen Reynolds taking the lowest step of the podium just under two hours behind the winner.
For the Pole it was not the first success in Italy: he had already triumphed at the Dolomiti Extreme Trail in 2021.