Fitsport Italia won 4 medals at the recent ITF European Taekwondo Championships held in Koper, Slovenia. Two silvers and two bronzes for the Italian athletes led by the team composed of master Ruggiero Lanotte (president of the Italian Federation and European Vice President), master Giuseppe Lanotte (Coach of Team Italy), masters Raffaele Ardito and Giuseppe Cafagna (international referees) . Four podiums for the Italians who did well among the 800 participants who came from all over the continent.
Among the results, the silver in the Senior category (58 kg) stands out, won by Antonio Guglielmi of Federico II di Svevia from Barletta. A silver and a bronze won in the Veteran category (VI dan) by Afrim Qokaj of Team Aquile di Muggiò (Monza). Finally, a bronze won in the children category (45 kg) by the young Giuseppe Dipace of Team Yul Gok of Margherita di Savoia.
“Great satisfaction for the results obtained by young people and veterans of our discipline – comments master Ruggiero Lanotte -. We managed to reach two finals in a competition that saw 27 countries competing, with the best athletes on the continent. Our team is constantly growing, and as proof of this, in Slovenia we won our first Senior medal in a continental competition. Italy can finally begin to play a leading role also in competitions, as well as in organizing international events”.
The Italian delegation made up of many athletes from the sixth province of Puglia, confirmed the progress in experience and quality. Even if they did not manage to enter the medal zone, the other nine members of Team Italy stood out: Ruggero Darancio, Ivan Ilgrande, Giuseppe Dimiccoli, Michele Dimiccoli, Davide Piazzolla, Gian Marco Areste, Annadea Dascanio of Federico II di Svevia of Barletta; Adriano Lisanti, Ferdinando Pistillo of Rea Sport of Canosa. “We are in the thick of the competitions – concludes Lanotte – not even time to rejoice for the results achieved, as the group is already working on the next events. Barletta, in fact, will host the International Challenge on 11 and 12 May. An event that will see us as organizers and which will bring hundreds of athletes from various European nations to the Bat. Then on the program we have participation in the International Challenge of Zvornik in Bosina on May 25th. Finally, there will be grade exams at the end of June.”
