The competitions between young and very young flag-wavers opened June events of the Niballo-Palio of Faenza: The Rione Giallo narrowly misses out on a trio of successes among the Under 21sthose who are destined to compete for the “big” trophies within a few years.
In Porta Ponte, in fact, they rejoice for the victory of the Couple formed by Kevin Liverani and Federico Locatelli and for that of theirs drummer Lorenzo Ghiselliwhile in the Singles specialty Luca Giuseppe Corvino had to settle for second place behind a brilliant Marco Bertoni of Rione Verde.
Photo galleryFlag-wavers – Niballo 2024
On the Sunday in which the Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic is celebrated the afternoon sees the competitions between the flag-wavers and musicians of the Beginners, Youth and Under 15 categories, started as scheduled in Piazza del Popolo, then suspended due to rain, resumed at the “Dino Bubani” Sports Hall and concluded with the awards ceremony around 9.40pm; about twenty minutes later it’s the turn of the Under 21s.
The renovated building in Piazzale Aldo Pancrazi proves insufficient to contain an audience largely made up of local fans with a clear prevalence of young people, however the organization of the Palio Office of the Municipality of Faenza together with the experience of the Municipal Group and an efficient security service ensures that the event can take place in full regularity, even if in restricted and necessarily “arranged” spaces; on this occasion it was not possible to use the much larger Palazzo dello Sport “Vincenzo Cattani” as it had been booked for months by the Football Federation for the Manfredonia-Pordenone match of the Serie A2 Elite 5-a-side football which awarded the winner a place in the Serie A for the 2024-2025 sports season. For the record, the success went to the Apulian team with the result of 7 to 5, gained after the penalty kicks.
Despite the full house, the “Bubani” proved to be equal to the emergency, also thanks to the physical composure of the public: there was no shortage of the usual teasing among the local fans, who also had the opposing flag-wavers in their sights during the performances on the parquet , illuminated excellently with LED headlights.
Not even one was missing unpleasant episodewhen in the middle of the evening there was a hint of brawl between contendersnot flag-wavers and drummers, of the Red and Green Districts in a space immediately outside the building: the excitement calmed down with the rapid arrival of the security personnel.
Individual performances
A couple of minutes before 10pm the competitions began with the performances of the five singles accompanied by their respective drummers, who for this specialty are never competing under the judgment of an expert representative for each district, unlike what happens for competitions between couples.
This time Marco Bertoni of Rione Verde, with patience and perseverance, crowned years of training with victory, after third place in 2022 and second in 2023, exhibiting ease in an exercise without flaws, if we exclude a slight uncertainty while handling five flags. Luca Giuseppe Corvino from Rione Giallo showed excellent command of the flags, but on this occasion he was betrayed by uncertainty and a plumb fall.
It must be said that with him and with the winning couple the Rione Giallo is training very valid young flag-wavers who will probably soon forget the “champions” of 2023 Luca Ghinassi and Davide Lionetti, who together with the coach Maurizio Reali moved to Ferrara in following the events linked to the exclusion of the flag-wavers of the Ente Palio Città di Faenza from the association of districts and bodies called the “Italian Federation of Flag-wavers”, which Faenza rejoined a few weeks ago, thus being able to have a qualified jury both for the competitions youth and senior competitions.
By 21 hundredths of a point the singles player from Rione Rosso Nicholas Solaroli had to settle for third place, while Alessandro Ricci from Borgo Durbecco and Damiano Frediani from Rione Nero finished in fourth and fifth place respectively, further behind in scores.
Couples’ performances
The evening’s program went smoothly without interruptions, but the first couple still performed at 10.25pm; fortunately the speed of the jurors meant that the awards ceremony could take place within a quarter of an hour after the end of the competitions.
Behind the winning couple of Rione Giallo was that of Red, trailing by just 21 hundredths of a point, which was affected by the “bounces” of two flags on the ground: Nicholas Solaroli and Federico Piazza had the merit of not making mistakes which they betrayed the couples that follow them in the rankings. For the Green Marco Bertoni together with Nicola Dal Pozzo took third place, leaving Federico Maurizi and Davide Guerrini of Borgo Durbecco behind and even more Marco Ciliento and Michele Fiume of Nero, a clear demonstration of how emotion can play tricks.
Soon
The next appointment of the “Niballo-Palio di Faenza” events will be that of 9pm on Saturday 8 June with the jousting of the 25th Bigorda d’Oro at the “Bruno Neri” municipal stadium. There will not be the traditional walk in historical costume from Piazza del Popolo to the stadium.
The opening will take place on oath of the knights of the five districts which was not carried out on the evening of Sunday 2 June due to bad weather: Davide Ricci (Rione Giallo, 16 years old, debutant), Enrico Gnagnarella (Borgo Durbecco, 26 years old), Daniele Leri (Rione Rosso, 40 years old), Stefano Venturelli (Green Rione, 27 years old), Alberto Liverani (Black Rione, 47 years old).
Meanwhile it seems that the evening of flags has left behind the announcement of the resignation of Gianluca Maiardi as Chief of the Red Wardwho should make the reasons known only in July.
THE RANKINGS
Under 21 Single Flag Bearers Tournament
1st Rione Verde: Marco Bertoni, with Michela Pantera (tamburina) points 24.90
2nd Rione Giallo: Luca Giuseppe Corvino, and Enrico Pederzoli (tamburino) points 21.37
3rd Rione Rosso: Nicholas Solaroli, with Martina Rossi (drummer) points 21.16
4th Borgo Durbecco: Alessandro Ricci, with Filippo Maurizi (drummer) 17.34 points
5th Rione Nero: Damiano Frediani, with Ginevra Cipriani (tamburina) points 14.10
Alfieri Bandieranti Under 21 Pairs Tournament – 15th Marco Testa Trophy
1st Rione Giallo: Kevin Liverani and Federico Locatelli points 21.16
2nd Rione Rosso: Nicholas Solaroli and Federico Piazza points 20.55
3rd Rione Verde: Marco Bertoni and Nicola Dal Pozzo points 19.83
4th Borgo Durbecco: Federico Maurizi and Davide Guerrini points 18.03
5th Rione Nero: Marco Ciliento and Michele Fiume points 14.79
Competition between the Under 21 Couples Drummers
1st Yellow District: Lorenzo Ghiselli points 71.60
2nd Borgo Durbecco: Mattia Comani points 69.70
3rd Red Rione: Alessia D’Amico points 67.10
4th Black Ward: Ginevra Cipriani points 62.50
5th Rione Verde: Michela Pantera points 59.10
Tournament of very young Flag Bearers and Musicians
Winners of the Beginners (from 7 to 9 years), Youth (from 10 to 12 years) and Under 15 (from 13 to 15 years) categories
Single (Beginners): Alessandro Daino from Rione Verde
Single (Youth): Pietro Villa from Rione Rosso
Single (Under 15): Alessandro Ione from Rione Verde
Couple (Beginners): Alessandro Daino and William Rontini from Rione Verde
Couple (Youth): Marco Sangiorgi and Riccardo Sangiorgi from Rione Rosso
Couple (Under 15): Tommaso Conti and Claudio Fabbri from Rione Verde
Team (Youth): Christian Bandini, Marco Bombardini, Agostino Bubani, Agata Gaddoni of Rione Giallo
Team (Under 15): Tommaso Conti, Claudio Fabbri, Alessandro Tini, Emma Ferrini, Emma Fiorentini, Noemi Francesconi from Rione Verde
Musicians: Vera Zaccherini, Selene Alpi, Matteo Baccarini, Tommaso Bertozzi, Gaia Borghesi, Luca Borghesi, Mattia Gentilini, Alissa Ferri, Riccardo Lamarina, Francesco Margotti, Andrea Pozzi, Michelle Ravaioli, Marisol Sain, Edoardo Tagliaferri of Rione Nero.
