Queen Margaret, in Kazan for the European throne

Panziera in Russia to defend the title won in Glasgow in 2019 in the short course: looking for redemption after Tokyo

MONTEBELLUNA

The opportunity to embellish a bittersweet 2021, kicking off the three-year journey that will have the Paris Games as its goal. After the European Championships in Budapest last May, which culminated in the title-bis on the 200 backstroke, there was in fact the Tokyo Olympics scoppola, with the failure to qualify for the final in the race of the heart, in spite of a time trial of second registration in the world in 2021. So Margherita Panziera picked up the pieces of the unfortunate Japanese trip and this week she will try to draw a line definitively, exploiting the short course Continentals of Kazan (Russia), where she will have to defend the gold on her ” ”200 belly up centered in Glasgow 2019. It will be the first step of an intense final of the year, which will include the Winter Absolutes and the Short World Championships in Doha. In short: there is time and margin to be able to file the five-circle consideration. Leveraging on an event that, with the bronze medal of the Copenhagen 2017 edition, showed the 26-year-old from Montebelluna new career prospects.

Net of the Mediterraneans, that third step in Denmark coincided with the first international medal. The efforts of Kazan, where Panziera played his first World Cup, will kick off this morning with the first heats and will end on Sunday, rekindling the spotlight on six Tokyo medalists (absent Manuel Frigo, silver with the 4×100 Olympic). The policewoman of the Aniene, who could be used immediately in the 4×50 sl, has already circled the date of Thursday, the day of the final of the 200 backstroke: heats and semifinals are scheduled for tomorrow instead. In his calendar, there are also 50 and 100 backstrokes (final on Saturday), even if the shorter distances, especially in the small pool, are more congenial to the other blue Silvia Scalia. «The event will also be valid for the qualification for the next World Championships in the short term», specifies the selector Cesare Butini, «Considering that a European has never been played in the first ten days of November, I hope good results compared to the period. We must remember that it will be a competitive season full of international events: from the European Championships in Rome in August 2022 to the World Championships in short in Doha, passing through those in long in Fukuoka. Multiple events that require careful planning and technical modulation ».

After the fourth place in the 2019 world championship and the flop of the Olympics, the Kazan Euroindoor will be able to help her face the journey towards Paris ’24 with renewed enthusiasm. Which, for Margherita, must be the Olympics of redemption. –

Mattia Toffoletto