2024 will remain in the history of Riccione Academy Gymnastics. After winning the Final Six in Florence, the championship finals, with an excellent sixth place in Italy as a “terrible” freshman, a prestigious success arrives for an athlete of the club led by president Francesco Poesio. Rebecca Aiello wins the Italian Champions Cup, first place out of over 200 gymnasts competing in Padua with an all around score of 52.850.
“It was a completely new emotion, I absolutely didn’t expect this result – comments Rebecca Aiello -. I managed to improve a lot compared to last year, I didn’t expect such a result after just six months of working with the new company, and it was a fantastic feeling.”
What did you feel during the race?
“It was very nice to experience this race, it was full of emotions especially because at the beginning my intent was not to win, but to do everything I knew how to do as best as possible. I entered the race knowing that I had prepared as best I could, and at the beginning the emotion made itself felt. But after the first tool (the beam, ed.), everything went downhill. It was almost easier to continue the race because I freed myself up a bit. When I realized that I had done a high-level competition without missing a single tool, it was also liberating.”
What tool gave you the most satisfaction?
“It’s difficult because all the tests went well. If I have to say two, I would say vault and parallel.”
What did you feel when you lifted the Champions Cup?
“It was wonderful. I had some time to digest, also because I competed in the morning and the awards ceremony took place in the evening. It was wonderful to find myself on the highest step of the podium with that beautiful cup in my hand. I think I will never feel such a strong emotion again, also because it was the first victory, and the fact that it came in such an important competition made it even more special.”
What was your first thought with the Cup in your hand?
“First of all, all the efforts made during these hard months came to mind. I then thought about my coaches and the club, who helped me lift this trophy: they had a fundamental role in this victory.”
Victory which also qualifies for the Italian Championships, scheduled for the first weekend of July in Cuneo. What will be his goal?
“The goal is to be able to perform the exercises as I know how to do them because I know I can do them very well. I have no other expectations.”
“It is a great emotion, a historic result for our society: it is the first time that one of our gymnasts has won such an important title – comments an excited Francesco Poesio, president of the Riccione Academy Gymnastics -. It should be underlined that Rebecca came first from Junior 3 in a competition that was not divided into categories, therefore with gymnasts of all Junior and Senior levels. Her score was of the highest standard. This result rewards an incredible work that we have been carrying out for some time now and, above all, the enormous work done with Rebecca, who since she arrived in Riccione has been managed in the best possible way from a physical, psychological and technical point of view . Our athlete brought a very high level of gymnastics to this competition, which everyone could admire. This competition, in addition to being of great prestige at a national level, qualifies for the Italian Absolute Championships, which will therefore see Rebecca competing with the best 20-30 Italian gymnasts, including the Italians, European champions and ready to defend the tricolor at the Olympics Paris”.
Also competing in Padua was the captain of the A1 team of the Riccione Academy Gymnastics, Adriana Poesio, who showed up for the event not at one hundred percent. “Adriana competed with her – continues President Poesio -. She was suffering from a slight strain in her calves, after all in the first half of 2024 she worked a lot for the A1 commitments. Our technical director Anton Stolyar decided to limit the difficulty of his exercises to prevent him from taking physical risks, which clearly affected his scores. But it was right to avoid her being forced to stop because it will be a precious summer of work for her to learn new elements. However, Adriana performed some good elements on the beam and a decent free body, a specialty in which she achieved 60to out of 200 competing gymnasts.”
In the photo: Rebecca Aiello with the Champions Cup to and from the Riccione Gymnastics team
