The various events took place from 3 to 6 May in Cesenatico and Cervia national finals related to competitive mathematics: individual final, mixed team final (male and female), female team final, junior team final (two-year high school), three-year high school team final (only race with the possibility of using programmable calculators). Marconi represented the provinces of Massa-Carrara and La Spezia in all the scheduled competitions.
On the morning of Friday 3 May the ball starts in Cesenatico the individual national final and among the 300 finalists there are seven Marconi students. Marconi’s individualists, at the end of a demanding demonstration race, were rewarded with: a silver medal to Diego Barcellone; three bronze medals to Gabriele Martini, Francesca Pregliasco and Sara Sigolo; three honorable mentions to Andrea Cavalieri, Rosario Gentile and Matteo Massa.
The mixed team competition kicks off on Friday afternoon with 128 teams, representing as many schools from all over Italy, who must compete in 4 parallel semi-finals to choose the 32 finalists. Marconi finds itself placed in semi-final A, the most difficult. The Marconi septello composed of: Gabriele Martini (captain), Tommaso Marrucci (deliver), Sara Sigolo, Matteo Massa, Rosario Gentile, Diego Barcellone and Patrick Scicolone qualifies sensationally first, ahead of the very strong Volta of Milan, solving all 16 problems proposed, the only team in all the semi-finals to achieve this performance!
The final with 32 teams, played on Saturday morning, after a close fight in the first three quarters of the race which saw Marconi in the lead for a long time, it brought about the breakaway of Volta who, with 5 individual golds and 1 silver, broke away from everyone in the last quarter of the race and goes on to win. Marconi, in an attempt to recover the gap from Volta, gave too many incorrect answers and, due to the penalties suffered for these errors, finished the race in fourth place, being overtaken in the final by both Ferraris from Turin, silver, and Calini from Brescia, bronze.
The women’s team final is played on Saturday afternoon with 25 teams, Marconi takes the field as reigning champion with: Sara Sigolo (captain), Giulia Massa (deliver), Arianna Ussi, Francesca Pregliasco, Linda Babboni, Giulia Bertolucci and Rebecca Ravenna. This race is also deservedly won by the girls from Volta from Milan, the seven MathGirls from Marconi confirm however that they are among the Italian elite by closing the race with a great second place ahead of Calini from Brescia, bronze.
On Sunday afternoon 5 May in Cervia we attack with the first of the two rounds scheduled to award the title champions of Italy in junior teams (first two years of high school), the the second and decisive round will be played the following morning. 36 teams are lined up at the starting line, only Marconi takes the field with 2 teams as the reigning champions. The Marconi first team is made up of: Diego Barcellone (captain), Maria Cannas (deliver), Linda Babboni, Francesco Manetti, Giulia Bertolucci, Rebecca Ravenna and Rocco Ribolini; while the second team is made up of: Saksom Ulivieri (captain), Luca Marrucci (deliver), Andrea Nardini, Michele Pisano, Cecilia Barbu, Gabriele Tenerani and Eleonora Bonvini. The first 90 minutes of the race, with Calini from Brescia imposing a frenetic pace on the race from the first minute, make it clear that the title this year is a three-way affair between Marconi, Ferraris from Turin and Calini himself who finish in this order the first round with 848, 746 and 762 points respectively and a large gap from all the other teams who, unlike the first three, are unable to solve all the problems proposed. The performance of Marconi’s second team was also good in this first phase, placing 23rd with 413 points. The next morning the problems proposed are decidedly more difficult, Calini starts again at a great pace, but halfway through the race Marconi takes the lead decisively and in the end confirms himself again as Junior Italian champion with 1511 points followed by Ferraris at 1393 points with Calini closing the podium at 1292 points and a gap of over 300 points from the other teams. Marconi’s second team achieved an honorable 22nd position with 595 points.
The Student Cup closes the finals on the afternoon of Monday 6 May, three-year team competition with use of calculators programmable reserved for three-year high school students. This is the only mathematics competition where the use of a calculator is allowed and where problems are given which, without good programming skills, are almost impossible to solve in the allowed competition time which is only one hour. Marconi, like other schools, qualified for this particular final with two teams. The match is won by Cassini of Genoa, an excellent silver for the first Marconi team to take the field with: Rosario Gentile (captain), Arianna Ussi (deliver), Gabriele Martini and Patrick Scicolone, bronze for Leonardo of Brescia. The second Marconi team, made up of Andrea Cavalieri (captain), Tommaso Marrucci (deliver), Matteo Massa and Sara Sigolo, placed excellently 14th out of 53 participating teams.
A warm round of applause goes to all the Marconi boys from their coaches (Giacomo Bertolucci, Jacopo Degl’Innocenti, Edoardo Annunziata, Giorgia Benassi, Fabio Bordigoni and Giuseppe Pezzica) and all the Marconi school staff who have always followed with passion the exploits of its young champions.
