Bocce, De Sanctis: “A universal sport that deserves the Games”

The Coni Hall of Honor hosted the presentation of the book, written by Luigi Milozzi, entitled “On the roof of the world – Il Signore della Raffa”, which tells the story of the current individual world champion, Gianluca Formicone. For the occasion, in the house of Italian sport, the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò, and the president of Fib, Marco Giunio De Sanctis will be present.

Malagò’s enthusiasm

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Malagò, in thanking Gianluca Formicone for his successes, underlined how “a world title conquered in any discipline is a result that must make the entire Italian sports movement proud”. “All the champions, without exception, contribute to making the national sport great”, continued Malagò, who also spoke of the Olympic dream pursued by Federbocce. “Sport is constantly evolving and, nowadays, new disciplines make up the vast sporting panorama, which are eager to enter the program of the Paralympic Games”. “The bowls pay a very high price for the confusion that reigns at the international level, since the world football sports policy has not been able to create a single body that would also represent the only interlocutor with the IOC and with the Organizing Committee of the Games”, underlined Malagò.

The satisfaction of De Sanctis

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The federal president, Marco Giunio De Sanctis, taking up what was said by Malagò, highlighted how “already in the Paralympic world a project was started that led the movement to achieve the extraordinary results of Tokyo”. “These ambitious goals come from afar – the words of De Sanctis – For the bowls, together with the Federal Council, we are working to ensure that all the specialties are practiced in every national territory. The political and competitive unification, sanctioned in 1980, has yet to be implemented. And, today, we can no longer waste time. Petanque is a popular sport, which gives everyone the opportunity to play: from 5-year-olds to over 90s. In addition, there are many social and aggregative peculiarities, which are difficult to find in other disciplines: a woman can beat a man, an athlete with a disability can win against an able-bodied, you can play on all surfaces, giving the opportunity to seriously disabled people to being able to compete at a competitive level, even at the Paralympic Games “. “The important thing is the entry of the sport of bowls into the program of the Olympic Games, in order to project the Italian Bocce Federation in the place that belongs to our discipline – continued De Sanctis -. The specialty with which this dream could come true is secondary. It is obvious that we will have greater hopes with those specialties, such as Petanque, which are more easily practicable in a greater number of countries ”. “The book on Gianluca Formicone, one of the most celebrated champions of our sport, contributes to the work of image and communication, which is making our movement known to the outside world – continued President De Sanctis – To this end, the FIB has established the ‘Club Giovani Azzurri’ to promote our discipline in the area.

Formicone’s smile

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Formicone is from Abruzzo, a region that has given birth to many champions and, among them, to other champions, such as Dante D’Alessandro and Renato Scacchioli ”. The author of the book, Luigi Milozzi, illustrated the book, which traces the sporting life of Gianluca Formicone, from his first approach with wooden bowls to the conquest of the World Cup in Tucumán and the last season, divided between the VIP clubs Credaro Bergamo and Nova Inox Mosciano. “I won a World Championship that I had been chasing for years and I will never stop thanking Fib for giving me the opportunity to compete in a world championship event at the age of 48, in a particular period of my life – Gianluca Formicone closed the conference – I won a lot in my career, but the Individual World Championship was the icing on the cake of my sporting activity. To get to the highest levels, the training is constant and it is thanks to my continuity that I still practice, successfully, the High Level activity ”.