‘Gasco’ 2023 award goes to the memory of Julia Ituma

‘Gasco’ 2023 award goes to the memory of Julia Ituma

News that no one would have wanted to read: the sudden and untimely death of Julia Ituma, a young volleyball hopeful on the strength of Igor Volley Novara, struck the Italian volleyball world and the entire sports community like a thunderbolt. The volleyball player was with her teammates in Istanbul, Turkey, to play in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. After the competition, the team retired to their hotel: on the morning of Thursday, April 13, the player was found lifeless. A heartbreaking epilogue for an athlete of extraordinary prospects. Born in Milan to parents of Nigerian origin, she was considered one of the greatest promises of the national volleyball movement: last summer she had won the Under-19 European Championship with the Italian national jersey. Her loss is devastating from a sporting point of view, but even more so on a human level.

That is why the ‘Piero Dardanello’ cultural association, in collaboration with ‘Tuttosport,’ decided to award the 18th plaque named after Piero Gasco in memory of the Milanese talent. Each year the award, dedicated to the doctor and sports executive, is presented to an athlete or a personality from the world of sports who has distinguished himself or herself through philanthropic activities or actions of solidarity. The award is supported by the Gasco family and the Rotary Club of Mondovi, with a contribution from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo; it includes a cash donation, to be given to a charity of the winner’s choice. Inscribing Julia Ituma’s name on the event’s roll of honor is a strong choice, which cannot fail to take into account the particular impact of such a tragic event. The Monregalese, in fact, has always been a land of volleyball and Ituma has been present several times at the Palasport ‘Nino Manera’ in Mondovi.