She is the first Canavese woman to win the Italian flag «My passion? Born by chance ». She is better than the males
IVREA
In an exciting summer for Italian sport, from the unexpected triumph at the European football championships to the rain of medals at the Tokyo Olympics, there is news that has brought Canavese to the front pages of specialized websites and magazines (it has a record of shares on social networks): she was born in Ivrea and lives in Chiesanuova, the Italian champion of sport fishing, carpfishing specialties. Her name is Rita Saja, she was born in Ivrea, now she lives in Chiesanuova, she turned 50 on 21 July, two children aged 20 and 25, and a great passion for fishing.
She graduated champion of Italy, together with Luisella Crivaro from Novara, with the colors of the Novara carpfishing company. They literally beat the competition in the first 2021 Italian Championship in pairs of women’s carpfishing which took place in two stages, tiring and technical with the final in the Pietrafitta basin, in the province of Perugia.
“I felt like I was living a dream, of touching the sky with a finger: it still doesn’t seem true” confesses Rita Saja, overwhelmed by compliments, over two thousand posts from all over Italy. She has been fishing for only 10 years and has been a competitor for just five years. Number one in a discipline in the collective imagination for men only and which technically outclassed an entire telephone directory of boys.
«I was on the shore of a lake, ten years ago – recalls the new champion – two friends went away to shop, leaving the rods for fishing. I’ve seen one flex. I ran, grabbed it and a wonderful fight with a queen carp began. I took her to a landing net. We took a picture, which I still jealously keep, and two days later I was in a specialized shop to buy my first equipment ».
Two notes. Carpfishing is one of the most practiced techniques by freshwater fishermen. It is growing rapidly in Italy and is dedicated to a single prey: the carp (queen, mirror, amur) which, once captured, is placed on a special mat (or cradle), unhooked, weighed, photographed and set free. Even the wound caused by the hook is disinfected, rigorously without barb. Carp do not ingest the bait, so they are not put in danger of life.
The competitions take place from Friday to Sunday morning with the athletes camped in tents on the shores of the lakes, in all weather conditions.
“It is a primordial embrace to nature, the true essence of fishing where the environment and prey are always respected,” says Saja who looks at the tricolor shield freshly sewn on the blue shirt. On her Facebook profile, in a beautiful and long post, she tells about her emotions and thanks many people: from the two friends who took her fishing for the first time to the federal technicians who trained her, selected and brought her to the summit of the sport fishing, to keep company with another Canavese, Andrea Giganti, champion of the world and of Italy in another specialty: trout fishing in torrents.
A special thought to his teammate Luisella Crivaro with whom he shared sacrifices and hard work but also an immense joy: that little Italian championship, unexpected but strongly desired, born by chance. From an afternoon by the lake and from that reed that suddenly bent towards the water. It was the sign of a radiant destiny. –