Water polo: Setterosa back on top of Europe

In the end a comfortable 13 to 10. Setterosa is European champion. Against world champions Greece (who had beaten us in the opening match of the qualifying group) she played the perfect match at the end of a perfect championship. What is perfection in a water polo tournament? He is an exceptional goalkeeper like Elena Gigli; the ability to defend with a narrow zone even when playing outnumbered, an extraordinary management of the attack when playing with the extra man; two extraordinary buoy centers (sometimes used together) such as Teresa Frassinetti and Elisa Casanova (the captain, who arrived at the national team at the age of 35 because she was of the same generation as the great Giusy Malato); a fabulous comeback, like that of Tania Di Mario (already in the previous setterosa); the great maturity of the young Simona Abate from Marcianiese So far above all a land of boxers), a penalty taker (Roberta Bianconi) who hasn't missed one throughout the tournament. But above all an extraordinary nervousness of the whole team, thanks to Fabio Conti, the coach.

In short, in the Olympic year, the auspices for the European champion girls, who will play the qualifying tournament in mid-April, are propitious. Just as they are for the Settebello boys, who, despite being defeated (and badly) by an extraordinarily strong Croatia in terms of physicality, this afternoon will play for the gold medal against the Hungarian masters. Therefore, after the Eindoven championships, the optimism and satisfaction of the president of the swimming federation Paolo Barelli is more than justified.

For those who have seen. even if on television, almost all the matches of the tournament remain satisfactions and above all many emotions. Because in water polo, with the teams always playing point to point, it's not only those in the pool who feel the adrenaline, but also the spectators. Those who watch television and who can see the harshness of the physical clashes, thanks to the underwater filming, where those fouls take place that not even the two referees, who are on the edge of the pool, are able to see. In this sense, water polo is also an extraordinarily televised sport.

And if the viewer is also Neapolitan, born and raised in Santa Lucia, in the neighborhood where the nautical clubs are located, the emotion is combined with memories. because in Naples water polo is also culture. We think of the protagonist of "Mortally Wounded" by Raffaele La Capria, for which the writer was inspired by his brother Pelos, former goalkeeper of Rari nantes. And then Naples is the city of Gildo Arena and Fofò Buonocore, if I'm not mistaken, protagonists of the September 1948 London Olympics. And then there are the brothers Buby and Frtz Dennerlain, with the latter not being in the team that won the Rome 1960 Olympics because he had to run the 100 and 200 butterfly. Nor can we forget the D'Altrui, father and son, both in the national team in successive periods. Geppino was the captain of the 1960 Olympians. Naturally, the history of water polo doesn't stop in Naples. This is Cesare Rubini's sport, who played the Olympics both in the pool with the settebello and on the parquet with the national basketball team. To then become the coach of the legendary Simmenthal Milano's red shoes.

Finally, I would like to dedicate three personal memories to Setterosa's extraordinary victory. The first: I'm not more than 10 years old and I'm going to see the first water polo match. In Naples at the time there was still no indoor swimming pool (it will only be done in 1964 for the Mediterranean games) and Rari and Canottieri play the Serie A championship, in an improvised stretch of sea water, behind the Beverello pier , from which waterbuses and hydrofoils now leave for Capri and Ischia. The second memory is that of the 1960 Rome Olympics. I too was there that evening in the pool when we won the gold medal, and a few hours earlier I had witnessed Livio Berruti's victory over the 200 meters at the Olimpico. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary days for Italian sport. Except for football.

The last memory refers to the day of the Italian essay at my classical high school diploma. Naples, Umberto High School. Among the privatists, aggregated to my class, I see a boy, very well dressed, but with a black eye. One of the professors approaches him and asks him why he got hurt. He replies: “Actually last night we played Recco. I returned to Naples this morning, just for the exams”. I soon found out that that boy was called Dario Monizio, he played in Serie A with Canottieri who were then contending for the championships at Pro Recco. But to take his high school exams he traveled at night in a second class couchette. Because water polo was a strictly amateur sport.