Merano is looking forward to Italy's best swimmers

The guest of honor at the media event on Wednesday was Cesare Butini, the head coach of the Italian national team, alongside numerous representatives from politics and sport, led by Meran's mayor Dario Dal Medico. Just a few days after the “Sette Colli” meeting in Rome, the last opportunity to qualify for the World Championships, and exactly a month before the season highlight in Fukuoka (Japan), the Cool Swim Meeting in Merano will be a real test, especially for the big names in Italian swimming. The seventh edition will take place from June 16th to 18th.

Seven years have passed since the two Merano swimming clubs (AS and Sportclub) decided in the summer of 2016 to bring the major swimming sport to the Passer city, also thanks to the then brand new, very fast 50-meter pool in the Lido. In these first years, the Meran event grew more and more and found a place in the international calendar.

The lectern at the press conference in Merano town hall.

The times swum in Merano are now recognized by the Italian association as World Cup qualification. Every year it is also the starting point for the big summer events for Italy's elite. Who doesn't remember the legendary duel between Gregorio Paltrinieri and Gabriele Detti in 2017 over the 1500 freestyle? Since then, the Italian national team has always been present with its top athletes to prepare for the big events.

That will also be the case this year. “We will be hosting a selection of the Italian national team from head coach Cesare Butini for a training camp in Meran from Sunday, June 11th to Monday, June 19th,” says Walter Taranto, President of the organizing committee of the Cool Swim Meeting and also President of the South Tyrolean Swimming Association.

A four-time European champion is the star The main participants in the field are Thomas Ceccon and Nicolò Martinenghi. The two really don't need any introduction, they are two world stars in their sport. The 22-year-old Ceccon from Thiene in the Veneto was the absolute star of the European Championships at the Foro Italico in Rome in August 2022: he not only won six medals (four gold and two silver), but was also the first athlete in the history of continental title fights , who has won medals in three different styles: backstroke, dolphin and freestyle. Not to mention that two months earlier, Ceccon won gold in the 100m backstroke at the World Long Course Championships in Budapest, setting a new world record in 51,60. Together with Martinenghi, he also won World Cup gold for Italy in the 4x100 medley relay, setting a European record, and bronze in the 4x100 m freestyle relay.

Martinenghi, who turns 1 on August 24, was no less impressive. In Budapest he won a historic gold in the 100m breaststroke in 58,26. At the European Championships in Rome he achieved the gold double in the 50 and 100 breaststroke and won his third title with the Italian medley relay, again together with Ceccon. From the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne last December, Ceccon and Martinenghi brought home six (Ceccon 3/1/2) and five medals (Martinenghi 1/3/1) respectively.

Like last year, Sara Franceschi, silver medalist in the 400 m individual medley at the Short Course World Championships in Melbourne and bronze medalist in the 200 m individual medley at the European Championships in Rome, will be there again in Merano. Over these two routes she also won the title at the Mediterranean Games in Oran (Algeria). Lisa Angiolini, won silver in the 100 breaststroke in Rome. Alberto Razzetti, the European champion in the Foro Italico in the 400 m individual medley and the European Championship runner-up in the 200 m individual medley, is also already on the entry list. Leonardo Deplano (two gold and one silver with the Italian relay in Melbourne), Matteo Ciampi (silver in Rome, bronze in Melbourne with the 4 x 200 freestyle relay), breaststroke swimmer Francesca Fangio and backstroke swimmer Paolo Cataldi are alongside Briton Max Litchfield, fourth in the 400 individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics, other prominent names in Meran.

Hoping for Ballo The last big name that the organizers have landed is that of Federico Poggio. “He won a medal at the European Championships in Rome last year and this year he allowed himself the luxury of beating Martinenghi,” said head coach Butini at the press conference. “We are in contact with other important athletes,” says Taranto, who would also like to have Stefano Ballo at the start, who at 30 is still the model athlete of South Tyrolean swimming and who is currently training in Caserta to get back into it to get into shape after undergoing surgery on his hand following a compound fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone in early March. “I would like to start in Meran, but I cannot confirm my presence at the moment,” said Ballo a few days ago.

The program remains unchanged from previous years. It starts on Friday afternoon with some fast racing in the evening skin race and ends on Sunday afternoon with the final relays. “Of course we will also award a prize for the best regional performance based on the FINA table. For this purpose, men and women each receive a gift card from the Algo shopping center in Algund. And there are cash prizes for the athletes who set an event record,” says Marco Giongo, the event’s sporting director. The more sportingly valuable a record is, the more money there is to win. If the records of Gregorio Paltrinieri in the 1500 m freestyle (14.53,90) or Thomas Ceccon in the 100 m backstroke are broken, you will receive 2000 euros.

After 650 registrations in 2022, organizers hope to break the 800 mark. “At the moment we are at around 500, with athletes from Hungary, Spain and of course Germany and Austria,” says Gebhard Unterrainer, member of the OK board. In order to improve the quality, the organizers hired the well-known speaker Luca Rasi.

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Merano is looking forward to Italy's best swimmers

Five weeks before the seventh edition of the Cool Swim Meeting, the organizers announced a field of participants at a press conference in the council chamber of the Meran community this morning that will make swimming fans click their tongues not only in South Tyrol.

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