Stadio Raul Guidobaldi, Athletics stadium in Rieti, Italy.
Stadio Raul Guidobaldi is an athletics arena in Rieti equipped with an eight-lane track. The main Velino grandstand with its steel arch roof has seating for about 5,000 spectators.
The stadium was built for the 1960 Olympic Games and received additional grandstands in the 1980s. The track underwent complete renovation between 2011 and 2012.
The stadium has been home to the annual Rieti Meeting for decades, one of Italy's most important track and field events. Every year fans and athletes from around the world gather here to watch world-class competitions.
The stadium sits in Rieti's Città giardino district, in a bend of the Velino river, bordered by viale Eugenio Dupré Theseider. It forms part of a sports hub: the municipal pool and tennis courts lie to the west, the PalaCordoni arena to the east. A cycle-pedestrian bridge over the Velino, opened in July 2013, links the piazzale Leoni entrance to the Giorlandina cycle path.
Steve Cram, writing in The Guardian, called the stadium a kind of Mecca for record-setting, and it earned the nickname "temple of the middle distances" for the many records set over middle and long distances. A cycle and pedestrian bridge over the Velino, opened in July 2013, links the piazzale Leoni entrance to the Giorlandina cycle path.
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