Meran: Cool Swim Meeting presented

The meeting is also on the program this year at the usual date on the third weekend in June in the Merano Lido (June 17th to 19th). The first news for 2022 was presented at a press conference on Monday in the Meran outdoor swimming pool. Even though the meeting in the Passer city overlaps with the start of the Long Course World Championships in Budapest (June 18th to 25th), the organizers can present well-known athletes from Italy and also from abroad. For the sixth time since 2016 (the event fell victim to the corona pandemic in 2020), the city's two most important swimming clubs (SC Meran and AS Merano Nuoto) are organizing the international competition, which is also a green event this year. The organizers have taken another step forward this year. “From 2022, our meeting will be recognized by the European Swimming Association and will therefore officially be a LEN meeting,” says OC boss Walter Taranto, who is also president of the South Tyrolean regional association. “The upgrade will also make us more interesting for many participants from Italy.” Of course, Italy's best swimmers will be competing at the World Championships in Budapest in June. Above all, Stefano Ballo from Bolzano, who secured a World Cup ticket with the Italian 4 x 200 m freestyle relay and therefore has to miss out on starting in Meran again. “But part of the Italian junior national team will be there. Selection coach Walter Bolognani is sending five men and five women to Meran, who will come to South Tyrol on Tuesday, June 14th to hold a training camp in Meran and take part in the meeting at the weekend,” says Marco Giongo, the sports director of the Cool Meeting. In addition to the Azzurri's young swimmers, well-known athletes such as Alice Mizzau (she won World Championship silver in the 2015 x 4 m freestyle in Kazan, Russia, with Italy in 200 and was also European relay champion in London in 2012 and in Berlin in 2014) and Matteo Lamberti will also be there be. Lamberti is the son of the former world record holder Giorgio Lamberti in the 200 m freestyle. He trains with coach Stefano Morini in Livorno. And of course local hero Laura Letrari cannot be missed in her final season as an active athlete. The woman from Brixen still holds six meeting records. All the important clubs from the region have also registered for the competition in the 50m pool. Swiss national swimmers are also there For the first time, part of the Swiss national team will also come to Merano. Head coach Massimo Meloni is at the World Championships in Budapest, but he is sending a delegation to the Passer city that includes several athletes who train at the Swiss Acquatics Training Base, such as Havana Cure Cabrera, Elia Riva, Aleksi Schmid, Lennox Ruthishauser and Richard Georgiev or Marlene Hüther from Germany, who is competing for Geneva Nation. The coach of the federal selection is Andrea Mercuri. A team from the USA is also competing in Merano this year: Azura Florida Aquatics with many athletes from overseas such as Ornella Giuliano (Uruguay), Britta Schwengle (Aruba), Mia Patton (Bahamas), Max Fermayer, Russel Svetlov and Alessandro Pereira (all USA), Dairo Sanchez (Peru) and Michele Vandenbossche (Italy/France). “We currently have 560 registered athletes, 400 of whom come from outside the region,” says Gebhard Unterrainer, vice president of the organizing committee. “Our plans are to have 700 participants, the maximum we can manage is 800 starters.” Up to 16.500 euros in prize money OC boss Taranto didn't forget to thank all sponsors at the press conference. “They have remained loyal to us and without them a meeting of this magnitude would not be possible in these difficult times,” said Taranto. After all, participants this year can win total prize money of up to 16.500 euros. That depends on how many meeting records are broken. The organizers have come up with something special. In simple words, the harder it is to break a record, the more prize money there is to win. The prize money was calculated based on the FINA table of the international swimming association. For example, Gregorio Paltrinieri's meeting records for the 1500 freestyle (14.53,90) or Thomas Ceccon's 100 m backstroke (53,20) are worth 2000 euros because they count for over 900 FINA points. There is 400 euros to be won for the meeting record in the 3.47,78 m freestyle (Gabriele Detti 1500). “Regardless of how many event records are broken, there will be 1000 euros in prize money for the best performance among men and women based on the FINA table,” said Taranto. There is also prize money for the top 3 in the Skin Race (knock-out race over 50 m freestyle on Friday evening). The program of the three-day event remains unchanged. There are five competition sections. The meeting begins on Friday, June 17th at 15 p.m. and ends on Sunday afternoon.

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Meran: Cool Swim Meeting presented

In exactly one month the sixth edition of the international Cool Swim Meeting will take place in Meran.

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