Italy, five medals blurred in one fell swoop

Swimming, European

Race canceled. The 25 km stops after 19 without awarding medals. This was decided by the LEN technical committee after a long meeting. The judges in the water had stopped believing that there were no longer safe conditions to continue. For the technicians and athletes, it could have been continued. In fact, five medals are cancelled for Italy: the potential gold of Mario Sanzullo, the silvers of Dario Verani and Barbara Pozzobon, and the bronzes of Matteo Furlan and Veronica Santoni.

There was not enough clear communication from the judges, too much time elapsed before the athletes themselves could figure out what to do, and at that point the referee judges were no longer able to detect all the provisional positions. At the LEN technical committee meeting it also became apparent that land did not communicate with sea, so the boat decided something that was not understood and decided from land. In any case it was disrespectful to the athletes. “They brought us together to tell us that the race is cancelled and there will be no ranking,” says national team technical coordinator Stefano Rubaudo, “without giving us too much explanation. There was a lack of communication between sea and land judges.”

The official communiqué states that “due to an emergency due to the weather conditions both the referee judges and the safety delegate decided to stop the races for the safety of the athletes and the judges at sea. Since the referee judges did not have a final compiled ranking of both races, they decided to cancel the rankings. The LEN apologizes to all participating athletes who trained hard to be ready for this event for not being able to determine the final standings. Even though the competition was held under extreme conditions. According to the principles of the LEN, the safety of athletes and judges must prevail under all circumstances. The other competitions at the moment will be held regularly. In case of bad weather, competitions may be postponed or cancelled.”