as I could understand from news on italian tg, they where not on opposite runway. Airone was taking off from the beginning of the runway and clear to take off, while MD-80 was authorized to line up and wait on the same runway from another taxiway further.
This is whayt television reported showing the maps,, then no more infos at all....Alitalia strike maybe has been considered much more important than a trivial abort take of!!!!!
Anyway I've seen the new only once, maybe they changed version, but on italian TV they never mentioned it anymore.