ANCONA – Two matches at the end of the regular season and for Vela Ancona tomorrow, Saturday 27 April at 2.45pm, there is the leaders Canottieri Napoli. At home, but at the swimming stadium in Bologna, due to the well-known and long closure of the Passetto pool in Ancona which has forced the Dorians for over two months to play away even the matches they should have hosted at home.
Always away for training too, coach Marco Risso’s team has now become a nomad in the swimming pools of half of Italy, with training sessions carried out in pools not suitable for water polo, where they can train the swimming part, or often not suitable for a championship of the A2 series, i.e. shorter and narrower, but perhaps with the depth necessary to train the legs and the vertical phase. Now that the reopening of the Passetto should be close, however, the team must face the penultimate match of the regular season in Bologna against Canottieri Napoli, leaders who are already certain of their lead by virtue of being 7 points ahead of Crotone. The Dorians are fourth on equal merit with Olympic Roma, but they trail Ischia and Arechi by two points and Latina by three, with two games remaining and the top four go to the playoffs. Here then is the importance of the last “in the house” for the Dorians.
On the match coach Marco Risso, who will be disqualified like the president and assistant coach, on the occasion of the matches, Igor Pace (Marco Palanca will be on the bench, perhaps also with Milko Pace, coach of the women’s team): «We did the whole round of return without the pool, however it goes seven days before the end of the championship we are still in contention for the playoffs, still training in a 25-person pool and playing at home in Florence, Bologna and Monterotondo. The team had a good training session in Bologna with De Akker and President, Canottieri in the southern group is the candidate for promotion, due to values and history, like Florentia in the north, and this already presents the opponents we will face, it will be a very tough match and I’m very sorry to be disqualified and not be able to be on the bench. A match without appeal, we can’t make any more mistakes.”
