Open water swimming is always blue. After Greg Paltrinieri’s show in the 10km, Italy dominates in the 25km marathon at the European Championships in Belgrade with a golden double. The men’s race was won by Dario Verani, world champion in Budapest and European silver medalist in Rome 2022: the 29-year-old Tuscan won in 5 hours 08’50″9, ahead of his national team teammate, Matteo Furlan, second with 5.7 seconds Frenchman Axel Reymond is third. And the longest race in the cross-country race also has a blue queen among the women: Barbara Pozzobon, who was silver in Rome 2022, second in the 10 km in Belgrade two days ago, wins in 5 hours 25. ’37″7 with a huge gap over the opponents. Italy’s medal count rises to 8 (3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze).
Furlan: “I can finally ‘retire'”
“It was a beautiful 25 with excellent conditions. The water was warm and the basin was higher, so you could swim very well – Verani’s words -. I did the race as I had planned: in control to force the last part. I am very happy because I have finally achieved a goal that I had set for myself.” Furlan continues. “Happy to have been on the podium for the fifth consecutive time at the European Championships, so I can finally ‘retire’ and stop with a good final result. I finished my career well.” “Very demanding race, even mentally. Keeping up with the men wasn’t easy. I’m happy with what I did, how I swam and how I felt in the water. I can’t help but be satisfied” Pozzobon’s words. And two more medals came from artistic swimming: with silvers in the tech mixed doubles and the team freestyle.
Filippo Pelati and Sarah Maria Rizea were second in the mixed duo final, just one point behind the Spanish pair Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Mireia Hernandez Luna and managed to leave Great Britain behind with Beatrice Crass and Ranjuo Tomblin. For Pelati it is the second silver, after the one won together with Flaminia Vernice in the mixed free. “I have always done swimming since I was little – says the Italian from Ferrara, born in 2007 who after Belgrade will also fly to Malta for the European juniors -. I did hip pop then I saw that in the pool there was this sport that brought a little swimming and dancing and I said to myself why not try it immediately and I continued.” Second place also for the Italians who in the free team finished the final behind Greece and ahead of Great Britain. The very young synchro team brought to Belgrade closed with 7 medals.
