Rowing, six world smiles for Italy
Great news for the Azzurri from the Czech Republic.
The first day of the rainbow finals reserved for non-Olympic and non-Paralympic specialties brought six smiles to the Italian team: in fact, Italy’s rowing team won as many medals (5 gold and 1 silver) out of the eight finals scheduled for Friday.
Opening the series of victories was the men’s two without weights lightweight of Alessandro Durante and Giovanni Ficarra, who, thanks to a well-made start and a course always with a high regime of strokes, won the gold medal ahead of Hungary, second, and the Czech Republic, third. Similar success for the pair composed of Maria Elena Zerboni and Samantha Premerl, specialists in the two without light weights, world and European Under 23 champions who also took the overall title today by dominating the final over the United States.
World title victory also for Gabriel Soares, who in the Light Weights individual literally displaced his opponents by swooping across the finish line ahead of Greece and Slovenia, the latter two after contesting the other two steps of the podium in the last five hundred meters.
The last two gold medals were the prerogative of the two light-weight blue quadruplets, men’s and women’s, who left no room for their opponents. A victory for the men’s lineup, of Antonio Vicino, Alessandro Benzoni, Niels Alexander Torre, and Patrick Rocek, which inflicted more than three seconds of gap on China, second to point to Germany, third. The women’s lineup of Ilaria Corazza, Giulia Mignemi, Silvia Crosio and Arianna Noseda, on the other hand, won the gold with authority over the U.S. boat.
The silver, finally, came from Gian Filippo Mirabile who, in the men’s PR2 single, managed to keep in touch with the Netherlands, which won the world title. The other two finalist boats reached third place respectively, the women’s two without PR3, and sixth finally, the women’s single lightweight. As for the partial medal table by nation, Italy leads with 6 medals (5 gold, 1 silver) ahead of Great Britain with two golds and the Netherlands with one gold and one silver. Tomorrow will be the seventh day of competition in Racice, with Italy engaged from 1:05 p.m. in three finals: two Olympic finals (men’s Lightweight doubles and Senior men’s four pair) and one Paralympic final (four with PR3 Mix).
