European swimming championships in Rome, gold for Minisini, Panziera, Ceccon, Martinenghi and Quadarella

To get mad. A day like this blue swimming will remember it for life. These are those sports pages that perhaps happen once in a lifetime, like Jacobs and Tamberi’s double Olympic gold last year. The numbers now. Five golds and four silvers between pool and synchronized or artistic swimming, if you prefer. Yeah, just crazy.

powers

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Being Europeans, these things were once in the strings of East Germany or the Soviet Union. In short, another era. The Azzurri in the Swimming Stadium began the races with three gold medals in the first minutes of the finals, in the women’s 200 backstroke (with the Panziera), then in the 50 butterfly (with Ceccon) and in the men’s 100 breaststroke (with Martinenghi). Then came the achievement of the Quadarella in the 800 freestyle (third gold in a row at the European Championships in the 800), finally the silver in the 4×100 mixed-mixed relay. For Quadarella it is a historic hat-trick: no one had ever won the 800 in three consecutive European Championships. It was also the third European title for Panziera (now 27 years old), after the gold medals in Glasgow 2018 and confirmation in Budapest 2021. Ceccon’s gold in the 50 butterfly is historic, given that it is the first most valuable medal in swimming blue in the specialty. Shortly after from the breaststroke the extraordinary blue double in the 100 with Martinenghi in front of Federico Poggio.

antipasto

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In the afternoon the appetizer came from the synchro: Giorgio Minisini made history by winning the gold medal in the technical solo. Among women, the workaholic Linda Cerruti won the silver medal again in the technical solo. Finished here? No, because the blue synchronettes won the silver medal in the highlights final. Stupendous. And we are only on the second day of racing.