(ANSA) – ROME, JUN 15 – With 11 golds, 8 silvers and 10 bronzes, for a total of 29 medals won so far, the Italian Paralympic swimming team is dominating the World Championships underway until Saturday in Funchal, in Madeira island, Portugal. Today the unfinished day medal table was enriched with a splendid gold by Simone Barlaam, in the 50 butterfly S9 who took revenge on the Australian Martin who had won in Tokyo, who finished second this time, and by Federico Morlacchi, at second bronze, despite recent physical problems (peritonitis and short workouts). Stefano Raimondi, S10, won gold in the 400 freestyle, the second gold in the Portuguese kermesse. Francesco Bettella, S1, took silver in the 100 backstroke final. And Angela Procida, S2, won bronze in the 100 backstroke. To remember among the many gold medals won by the Azzurri the performance of Antonio Fantin the other night who in the 100 meters freestyle, in addition to gold, lowered the world record for the S6 category to 1 ’03 “65.
“These first three days of competitions – comments the technical director of the national team Riccardo Vernole – went as we hoped.
We closed the last World Cup in London 2019 first in the medal table. It is not a foregone conclusion to reconfirm at the top of world swimming because Italy has been excelling for years, since 2017, from the World Championships in Mexico City. But behind these victories there is a lot of work that unfortunately cannot be seen. Of course, we must not hide the fact that the sporting culture in Italy is not comparable to that of giants such as the United States and Great Britain. But so far we are ahead of them. Even if it will not be easy until the end of the World Cup to be able to stay on the top step of the podium. “There are still three days of competition left and the stars of the national team Simone Barlaam, Stefano Raimondi, Giulia Terzi, Carlotta Gilli and Antonio Fantin still have many arrows bow to shoot with many finals to face to try to keep the advantage of the blues. (ANSA).
Source: Ansa
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