Italvolley aims for Paris, Velasco also recalls Egonu – Volleyball

In the run-up to the upcoming Paris Olympics, Italy’s women’s volleyball team is calling on the ‘old guard’, starting with Paola Egonu. This year’s Volleyball Nations League is the last gateway that can bring the Italians to the French capital and coach Julio Velasco has decided not to deprive himself of the ‘big names’.

So Monica De Gennaro and Caterina Bosetti, who were put aside in the last months of Davide Mazzanti’s management, also appear in the 30 players called up for the international traveling tournament in stages. There is also Ekaterina Antropova, whose rivalry with Egonu had sparked the summer of the ill-fated 2023 European Championship, when Mazzanti had promoted the Russian naturalized Italian a few days earlier.

Then many new players: from Yasmina Akrari to Benedetta Sartori among the central defenders, Ilenia Moro in the free throws, Martina Bracchi and Rebecca Piva among the spikers. However, the former captain Cristina Chirichella, the director Ofelia Malinov and Beatrice Parrocchiale are absent. The 2024 VNL will be important for Velasco also because it is the first official tournament in which the new Italian coach will be able to make assessments on the team he wants to build in the future. At the moment Italy is fifth in the world ranking and is the best ranked national team among those not yet promoted to the Games.

At the moment the ones selected would be Italy, China, Japan, Holland and Kenya, the latter representing Africa. The five places still available will be assigned based on the world ranking, examined on June 17th at the end of the VNL group stage. The Italians will make their debut in Antalya (14-18 May) where they will find Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey on their path. In the next stage they will be busy in Macau (29 May-2 June) to face France, Dominican Republic, Brazil and China.

In the third week, scheduled in Fukuoka (11-16 June), the women’s national team will take the field against Canada, South Korea, USA and Serbia. The Final 8 will be played in Bangkok (Thailand) from 20 to 23 June. Velasco, Argentinian, 72 years old, was the architect of the greatest volleyball successes in the history of the Azzurri. At the helm of the Italy of Phenomena (men) with which he won the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, for the last four years he has been technical director of the federal youth sector and since January 1st he has been at the helm of the volleyball players, with the mission of achieving qualification in extremis for Paris, failed by both men and women in last year’s tournaments.

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