Gold in the high jump at the European Championships in Rome is yet another satisfaction in the career of Gianmarco Tamberi, an award-winning athlete who has never hidden his love for basketball. It was precisely his never-concealed passion for the ball that brought him to Siena in the summer of 2017 to train for a week with the then Soundreef Mens Sana led by coach Griccioli. A week of training at PalaEstra, organized by president Guido Bagatta, during which Tamberi showed off uncommon skills, demonstrating that he could be in a group of A2 professionals from an athletic and also technical point of view.
The icing on the cake was the friendly match in Pistoia on 23 September 2017, in which Tamberi played and also scored 2 points. It was an unfortunate evening for Mens Sana who lost their point guard Cappelletti due to a ruptured knee ligament, but at the same time unique for the presence of an athletics champion on the roster. Born in Civitanova Marche and resident in Ancona, Tamberi is often in Pesaro to watch the local basketball team precisely because he has never hidden his ancestral aspiration to become a basketball player. “Basketball is a sport that I love very much – said Tamberi during that week in green and white – but also very tiring and very different from athletics. This short period in Siena is a dream for me after many years of practice on the pitches of my set off”.
“Having hosted a champion like Tamberi for a week was a very pleasant surprise – said yesterday the CEO of Mens Sana Caliani, team manager at the time -. They knew of his passion for basketball but not that he knew how to get by more than with dignity even with professional players. A splendid boy, happy to live life as a team. I’m happy that a few years later he won gold in Tokyo and that he is repeating himself at the highest levels like in Rome. I tried to get him to come back to say goodbye to us in recent months but it wasn’t possible. We will try again.”
Guido De Leo
