Sitting on the white sofa at the poolside of the swimming pool in Doha, where the artistic swimming competitors anxiously await the ranking judgement, Giorgio Minisini is it serious. He smiles when he learns that this time no basemark, as the penalty is called, will aggravate him. Then he looks at the scoreboard and when the score of 245.3166 appears which is the highest score up to that point, he snaps as if he had a spring; the lip, then confirmed, declares a “fuck”. To everyone and no one, to everything and nothing. Because in the mixed duo of the day before he had only finished sixth, «the night was restless, every now and then the bad thought of having lost the perception of my body in that last punished exercise knocked, and you can see that this is an early career end ? I was wondering”, he will later tell silver medal won.
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Sign in music
Because it happened like this: it went well, almost as if the music he performed with, “Still Loving You”, I still love you, had a kind of prophecy. We couldn’t give up on the “Requiem” that had accompanied sixth place. Three competitors remained: therefore Giorgio was at the foot of the podium; but the Spaniard, although doing well, did worse than him. Climbed the bronze step. The Colombian too. Climbed the silver step. That left the Chinese Schucheng Which, which is from 2007 and is 11 years younger. The young man did better than him, 246.4766.
Gratitude and hope
From the mixed zone Giorgio looks at the Chinese, at the end he even applauds: sporty. And grateful. The first thank you is for his coach, Milena, who was in the stands. And he hopes: «The important thing is to still be here and I like competing with this new regulation even if it has its flaws. I’ve been waiting for this day ever since I only saw Fukuoka on television because I was injured.” He will compete again tomorrow, freestyle only preliminaries. This time he won’t play the “Requiem” but a more auspicious title: “Hallelujah”, with the voice of Andrea Bocelli.
Chlorine and flames
The dictionary says: “Chlorine itself is not flammable, but it can react explosively or form explosive compounds with other chemicals such as white spirit or ammonia.” It needs to be updated: it also catches fire with VAR, the technological device that has already provided football with controversy and insults and which, now applied underwater, is also setting the world of aquatic disciplines on fire. In lap swimming he torments breaststroke and mixed swimmers, catching the “kick” or making the demand that two hands touch the plate in perfect simultaneity, which is practically impossible. Now the Var emerges relentlessly even in artistic swimming: a kind of God’s judgment of the codified gesture which however is always judged on sight by a person (gender equality) and therefore error is always possible. If there are two or more judges, the errors, rather than being eliminated, as we know, add up. The penalty kick is here called “basemark” and cancels all the points accumulated on a single element, with a disproportionate penalty. The athletes declare the difficulties. If a mistake is seen, the castle falls. So it happens that the girls of the Italian duo, Linda Cerruti and Lucrezia Ruggiero, are declared in fault, drop down the rankings and don’t know why, since no one noticed the mistake. Patience: none. Actually no, after the appeal maybe fifths. Actually no, sixth. However, they recover a treasure trove of points worth around thirty and can be good for the Olympic qualification which will be known at the end of the off-season world championships, the ones underway in Doha. After all, the proposed exercise was “the Phoenix”; Arab, in Qatar. The Var does not rise from the ashes. The dictionary says: «Chlorine sometimes appears in the form of a poisonous gas». Even World Aquatics, the world swimming federation, does it… The verdict dries Lucrezia’s tears that had flowed like a tsunami.
The Settebello says 33
The debut of Settebello in the men’s water polo tournament it happened, thanks to the soft opponent Kazakhstan, with goals: Sandro Campagna’s Azzurri scored 33 and conceded only 3. They all scored: Fondelli and Cinnamon seven times. The second match on Wednesday against the reigning world champions, the boys from Hungary, who, beaten by the Azzurri at the European Championships in Zagreb for bronze, called for “reinforcements” for Doha, was more “serious”.
High altitude Sarah
Sarah Jodoin DiMaria, the Roman from Quebec (a Canadian parent), ranks well from the 10 meter platform. Having overcome the semi-final trap (Maia Biginelli stopped here), Sarah is fifth in the final, third of the terrestrials since first and second came from China, another world: the winner Quan Hongchan never got less than 8.5 from one of the jurors and in one dive she got four 10s! That of the 23-year-old doctor Sarah (she has a degree in business economics and is studying for another as a designer) is the best placing of an Italian at the world championships in this specialty.
Separate on trampoline
Tomorrow they return to competition, in the 3 meter individual dives for which they have already qualified for Paris, the silver twins, the “historians” Giovanni Tocci and Lorenzo Marsaglia. Setterosa is also in the pool against South Africa. And at the seaside we prepare for the day after tomorrow when, for the 5 kilometre, together with Acerenza we will see the world debut of this edition of Gregorio Paltrinieri who will then do the cross-country relay the day after and the 800 and 1500 in the pool next week: ” vast programme”, as General De Gaulle said. But Paris awaits him…
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1970-01-01 00:00:00
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