It will be a Trofeo Settecolli much more Italian than usual, the one that will start on Friday at the Foro Italico with the last boxes in view of the Paris Games to be covered and the last doubts to be resolved both for the individual competitions and above all for the places in the various relays.
The decision of the Italian Swimming Federation of do not send Italian athletes to the European Championships in Belgrade, currently taking place in the Serbian capital are justifiable above all by the need to complete a competitive and ambitious team for Paris. Sending the Azzurri to Serbia would have meant something lower the technical rate of the Settecolli matches which instead is very high and many of the athletes eligible for possible participation in the continental tournament would have given up even a very small chance of being called up to arms in view of the Olympic Games.
Then there is the group of athletes already qualified for Paris who, right from the start, was directed towards the Settecolli (with a high quality but smaller commitment than a European Championship, which lasts practically a week) so as not to affect the hardest preparation period in view of the Games. For most of the athletes qualified in Paris, the Rome event will be little more than a catwalk, given that the workloads these days are very heavy and this meeting is unlikely to be carefully prepared.
There is wait, however, to see some swimmers in action who have not actually been seen at high levels for over three months. Apart from the trip to Barcelona and a few meetings here and there there was no opportunity to see the big blues compete who immersed themselves in preparation. It will be a party but also an important testing moment for technicians and swimmers.
There will be races with a very high technical content in Rome and others perhaps of lower quality but very important to complete the blue team. In the men’s 100m breaststroke a qualification for the final or so could result, in the 100 freestyle the completion of the relay can prove fundamental for the hunt for a medal, in the women’s 1500 should one of Taddeucci and Gabbrielleschi managing to obtain the qualifying time limit, Italy would add a very important piece in the open water race.
In the meantime at the European Championships we start competing with an objectively miserable starting field, which does not do honor to this event. Lots of Hungary, a bit of quality Greece and Israel, a few champions, like Popovici, here and there but very little, right between the Settecolli, the Australian and US trials and in conjunction with the French trials. Could there really be nothing done to make this event more interesting and competitive?
