Gregorio Paltrinieri changes his plans

The words of Gregorio Paltrinieri

Gregorio Paltrinieri, on the sidelines of the World Fencing Championships in Milan, spoke to Eurosport, about his rainbow event in swimming: “The experience was more disappointing than rewarding for me: I had two good races and the gold in the very important relay was a wonderful race and also good with the silver in the 5 km; for everything else I lacked, some preparation and it showed in the races and the condition was not right to compete, so I had to come back earlier. I am sorry to give up one race, the 1500 that will be there tomorrow, but I was totally drained of energy at this point and we decided to come back. These days I will have to do some analysis because I was not well. The reason I came back earlier is this: to speed up the time in doing the analysis and see what comes out.”

On giving up the 1500 freestyle: “It was very painful, I didn’t even want to come back and I would have stayed there without competing, but I have to do examinations and I want to speed up the recovery time. I’m following the races and I wish my teammates the best of luck.”

“Where does the decision to reduce the number of races come from? I still think I’m the strongest when I’m doing well, I haven’t proven it, but we were able to win with the relay and I finished second in the 5k coming within a stone’s throw of Wellbrock. It’s also been a bit of an unlucky year, but I think I can do it. Maybe I need to pace my energy, if I’m in the right situation I can do it. In the pool I should get my turns right and become faster, the pool requires that. Instead I have to devote myself to the bottom as well, it’s time for choices. I will choose for next year what to take to Paris, after Paris I think the pool is unthinkable. Cross-country gives you a way to train differently. Swimming goes forward and progresses, in times. Even in the 800m I did, they ran away from me right away and that was a problem.”