On Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 June, on the Garda platforms of Trap Concaverde, the Italian Paralympic shooting championship reserved for athletes of categories SG-S (Sitting), SG-L (athletes with impairments in the lower limbs ) and SG-U (athletes with impaired upper limbs). Now in its 11ma edition, the challenge for the Italian flag saw 58 entrants face off, almost 20% more than the record set last year, including, for the first time ever, 3 women, one for each of the competing categories. An important fact, which underlines the rise and the increasing consideration reserved for the beautiful shot by the Italian athletes.
Coming the results, in the SG-S category the Sassari Oreste Lai (92/125 + 34) defended and regained the tricolor title, preceding the Friulian Fabrizio Menia (88/125 + 32) and the Bergamo Omar Radaelli (90/125 + 25). In the SG-U category, the rider from Ravenna took the podium Mirko Cafaggi (98/125 + 39) followed by Calogero Sansone from Liguria (104/125 + 35) and Roberto Cucinotta from Brescia (96/125 + 27). Instead, the winner of the last world cup, held in Al Ain, Francesco Nespeca (111/125 + 22), stopped at the foot of the podium. Finally, in the SG-L category, the Bolognese was the national champion Daniel Gamberini (102/125 + 37), followed by the Lombard Giorgio Fazzari (115/125 + 35), best shooter at the end of the 125 “regular” targets, and by the Tuscan Maurizio Buralli (106/125).
So many confirmations, but also many new talents who have made a fine show of themselves in the fight for the national title, with results of absolute depth. Performance that did not escape the blue CT Benedict Barberini: "I am particularly happy to have seen so many new athletes, of excellent level, who have approached the paratrap, with many new classifieds and as many confirmations. - he has declared - It is an important sign, a symptom of the fact that the movement is growing year by year. This will make my task more difficult in selecting who will represent Italy in international competitions, but this is an absolutely positive fact. It was a hard-fought and interesting competition, as usual splendidly organized by the Concaverde staff».
He didn't hide his satisfaction as well Luca Minelli, FITAV assistant for the Paralympic sector: "The ever-increasing trend, with a number of athletes equivalent to that of other disciplines other than clay pigeon shooting, makes us look to the future with optimism. For the first time, then, there were three women who participated in the national championship. Two others are training intensely and, soon, we will be able to see them on stage on the most important stages».
«I thank Fitav, in the people of the President Luciano Rossi, the Vice President Emanuela Croce Bonomi and, of course, the CT Benedetto Barberini for the continuous and constant commitment in favor of the Paralympic movement, both inside and outside the national borders. - he concluded Ivan Carella, president of Concaverde - Our task will be to do the same to improve our facilities, so as to make this wonderful sport truly accessible to everyone».
Now the appointment is with the world cup in September, which will be held in Chateauroux in France, and with the first world championship of the discipline, again on stage in Lonato the first week of October.