Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes the rare story of Pjeter Pellumbi, the former record holder and Albania’s absolute champion in the Athletics competition in the 1980s, who came from an unknown village of Kurbin and attempted to compete in Tirana’s Sportsmanship, but did not accept and was forced to continue the Polytechnic “7 November” where two well-known pedagogues Ali Mema and Ismet Bellova noticed his special physical qualities and sent him to the “17 November” youth team. How he managed thanks to a steel will and tremendous training to become Albania’s absolute record holder and champion with the “Partizani” team where he stayed for more than 15 years as an effective club with the biggest names in Albanian sport …
That September 1970 morning as he was rushing with a suitcase in his hand he could barely catch the line bus to Tirana with his only son bringing him to enroll at the 7-November Technical School. , (or as it was then known by the Tyrones as “Polikumi”), Gjergj Pellumbi, a wise, former partisan and technical builder from the village of Gurëz in Kurbin, never thought he would bring that day and Albania’s next champion and record holder in Athletics at the Marathon.
14 year old Pjetër, not even admitted to the competition in Spor Masters..?
Although little Peter was distinguished among his peers there at the elementary school of his village at the Physics class, the only thing that would never go to Gjergj Pëllumbi as a parent was what the boy could deal with. sport ?! This, after he had sent Peter a few weeks earlier, to compete in the School of Sporting Arts in Tirana, where they had not even been admitted to the competition, which had already been forgotten and his only concern was that: to give the boy a job there at the Technical School of Tirana.
But it seems that not only George was wrong, but also the admission commission at the Tirana School of Sport Crafts who had not even admitted to the competition the guy coming from a village in Kurbin, had mistaken their “target” and had not “hit”. on target ”?!
Bellova and Ali Mema, discovered future talent
But what not all that jury could do with the relevant specialists of the “Sporting Mastery” admission competition in Tirana would do another sports man, even an Albanian football legend with the “November 17th” Tirana team. and that of the representative of Albania. He was Ali Mema, then a teacher of Physical Education at the Technical School of Tirana, along with his colleague, also a great name in the Albanian sports world, even among the best known, great commentator and microphone legend, Ismet Bellova, who was also a teacher of Physical Education at the “7-November” Technical School in Tirana ?!
The teachers Mema and Bellova, during the class of Physics, were immediately confronted with promising data on a future athlete of 14-year-old boy Pjeter Pellumbi, whose lack of competition at the school of sportsmanship had not at all discouraged him, only seeking to run, which fell to two honorable professors who were accustomed to such things… ?!
With the youth team at Tirana’s “17 November”, they broke records
Regarding his discovery as a promising talent in the sport of Athletics by two distinguished professors of Physical Education at the Technical School of Tirana, Peter himself recalls: “Professor Ali and Ismet encouraged me and encouraged me to pursue the sport of running and telling me that I was promising and because of that in the early days of school they got interested in the Head of Athletics at the “17 November” Club, Sokol Morina, who had talked with the age coaches in this kind of sport next to that club. So one day when we didn’t have much time to go to school, I was notified that I was asked by the Nov. 17 youth coach, Lyftar Ryta, to come to that team and start training immediately. ”
This reminds Pjeter Pellumbi, the time when he first started training with the youth team of Tirana’s “17 November” and for that reason his two Physical Education teachers, Ali Mema and Ismet Bellova, would become. Two of the most popular characters in the world of Albanian sport, who marked the future of the guy who would only become a few years later one of the biggest names in Albanian Athletics in the Marathon race, which continues to this day. By day, Peter never forgets them and is very grateful to them for everything they did for him. With the youth team of Tirana, led by coaches Lutfi Ryta and later Shaban Lame and Hajri Aliaj, Peter trained in the 1500 m, 3000 m. and 10,000, races in which he would compete successfully by breaking and breaking national age records.
Intern in Fush-Kruja and runs from Tirana to…
After finishing high school at POLIKUMI, with good results, Pjeter Pellumbi was assigned to do an internship in the town of Fushe-Kruja near SMT (Car and Tractor Station), after the village of Gurëz of Kurbin where Peter’s family resided, was under the jurisdiction of Kruja. Sports Club “17 November” There were many sportsmen by the name of the Head of Athletics Club “17 November” Sokol Morina intervened for Peter to make the internship closer to Tirana. However, he continued training with his team, although he had to make daily trips from Tirana to Fushe Kruja and vice versa.
But how could he attend training with his team when he needed to return to Tirana every day after working there at SMT in Fushe Kruja to be in line with his teammates in front of the coach ?! Concerning this, Peter recalls: “There was no other way, either I would continue training and achieve the goal I had set for myself to achieve high results, or I would remain an SMT worker and then who knows where I would end up. … ?! So, the only way that could get me somewhere was the sport and I had to keep going at all costs, even though I was away from Tirana and the team where I trained. And I solved this by making my way from Fushe-Kruja to Tirana, not always understood, but most of the time and people were staring at me with the cars and buses they were traveling in might think I was in trouble … ”Peter recalled not without humor at a time when, with extraordinary will and courage, he did not give up athletics even though he was away from Tirana.
Soldier in Lac Kurbin and runs up to Kruja
After completing a two-year internship at SMT of Fushë-Kruja, Peter was not granted the right to continue high school either at the Vojo Kushi Fitness Institute where mainly athletes with promising results went, but not at any other school that he eagerly sought ?! It seems that the biographical side might have influenced this thing, although his father, George Pellumbi, was himself a partisan ?! Given this fact, as was the rule, in 1977 Peter was called upon to perform compulsory military service by assigning him to Lach, Kurbin, in a tank unit where the army was for three years. Concerning this, Peter recalls: “From the early days of the army there in that tank ward I asked to be allowed to train, and after much effort they approved of me going on. This came after I found a group of excellent friends from the town of Lac and the district of Kruja (at that time military service was in your district), many of whom I knew from civilian life and were highly respected and respected. They insisted on the commanders that we had been ready to do my service, so that they would not prevent me from training. I respectfully remember those wonderful friends like Ilir Sejdo, Paulin Gjini, Aqif Balliu, Pjeter Luli, Sali Musallari, Ndue Toma, Astrit Abeshi, etc. etc, as well as my commanders and commissars, such as Kadri Subashi, Selim Kelici, Pajtim Tefa , etc. They were the ones who helped me out and encouraged me to train every day, running up a hilly road to the villages and towns of Lac near Kruja, a route I ran almost every day, ”recalled Peter of that time. when performing compulsory military service.
At the “Partizani” Sports Club as a sportsman and military
There in the tanks of Laci, Peter Pellumbi did not stay very much, because for a sportsman like him with those results, the capital teams needed much more and more in the Marathon discipline, where athletes were not as massive as in other races. . And so he was asked to go to Tirana, near the “Partizani” Club! Regarding this, Peter recalls: “After a few months of staying in the Lac Tanks, thanks to the high results I had in the Marathon race, with the intervention of the Partizani Sports Club, I was attracted and accommodated in the club where at that time the best quality sportsmen were gathered. So in the “Partizani” team I was trained by Theodhos Duro, Sadik Demiraj, Besim Bekteshi and especially by the camping master and my former competitor, the legendary Ndrek Aliaj. And all that time I did not mind the advice of Professor Ismet Belloves, who had given me in my first year at the Technical School of Tirana when I first started training with the youth team “17 November” Peter recalls his former teacher and lecturer, Ismet Bellova, who was already not only a sports specialist but also a friend of Gjergj Pëllumbi’s family.
Pjetër, a great champion and record holder of Albania
Peter remembers that in the 80’s the great Partizani Athletics team had big names, champions and absolute record holders, such as Isa Tare, Fatmir Bajraktari, Ndrek Aliaj, Sadik Demiraj, Aleko Thanasko, Durim Gorishti, Gani Aliaj, Fatmir Dragoj, Ylli Alushi, Servet Banaj, Agron Kasa, Gezim Dushku, Petrit Manaj, Petrit Mehmeti, Bujar Gjoni, Ernest Penc, Mane Luci and many others who gave honor and glory to that club in those years and throughout its history from creation until today. Among them Spike and Peter as national champions and breaking some records, such as. that of 1980 with a time of 2 hours 30 minutes 08 seconds, the result of which he improved one year later in 1981 with a time of 2 hours 26 minutes 19 seconds, which would give him the title of champion and national record. Thanks to these extremely high results at the time, Peter Pellumbby became a great name for the newspapers of the time and radio and television chronicles. So the young man, coming from a village of Lac Kurbin and without any support, thanks to steel vuilnet and systematic work, reached the pinnacle of Albanian sport, becoming an absolute champion. That petite guy who once mimicked and sought to become like Pietro Mena, (the Italian 100 and 200 meters sprint legend, who was an absolute European champion), managed to become an “Abebe Bekila” (Marathon World Champion). Ethiopia), of Albania. And given these high scores, the Partizani Sports Club kept Peter as a paid sportsman and military until 1991, when the fall of the communist regime forced him to leave Albania for Italy.
In Italy for 15 years as a physical rehabilitation specialist
Due to the fact that Peter had graduated and graduated with high scores at the Vojo Kushi Institute of Physical Culture in Tirana while part of the “Partizani” Club, he continued to pursue “motor science” courses and specializations. and for 15 years as a Physical Rehabilitation Lecturer at several Rome clinics. During those years he had the chance to become acquainted with many well-known names in sports and politics in Italy, who offered him various jobs, but he was constantly reminded of Albania, his friends, friends, relatives, former Partizani team athletes with whom he spent more than a decade in that Club, etc. And the opportunity came after some of his Italian friends offered him to cooperate in investing and building in Albania a pyrotechnic products company (ARPI) where he would become its manager and since 2005 he has split time between Italy and Albania./Memorie.al
