The Italian Championships will take place at PalaEvangelisti in Perugia beginning this afternoon. This competition will provide a first glimpse at the Italian gymnasts towards the selection process for the upcoming world championships in Montreal next month.

The meet will mark the comeback of Oympians Carlotta Ferlito and Erika Fasana after their Rio efforts. While Fasana will perform only on bars, not typically her strongest event, Ferlito could be a candidate for a spot in Montreal especially with her beam routine, where she is expected to perform some upgrades, including a loso mount.

Enus Mariani, who missed out on contending for a spot on the Rio team due to injuries last year, will also make her comeback, and it will be interesting to see if her bars could put her in the mix for Montreal as well.

Conversely, though she is training again, Vanessa Ferrari won’t take part in the Italian Championships as she is still struggling with her tendon. Her focus is on Tokyo 2020 and she isn’t willing to hurry her comeback earlier than necessary, pursuing the qualification as a beam and floor specialist.

Unfortunately, rising star Martina Maggio recently injured her knee and is therefore out of contention for worlds, but there’s a silver lining: the injury isn’t too serious, and she should be able to resume training after some months of rest, thus avoiding surgery. Without Maggio, both Lara Mori and Elisa Meneghini seem to be the frontrunners for the Italian all around spots.

However, the national all-around crown will be anyone’s game, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the super talented juniors Alice and Asia D’Amato and Elisa Iorio place at the top of the ranking. Giorgia Villa, the fourth member of what has been an incredible breakout junior team this year, will return to competition here on bars after injuring her Achilles in Jesolo this spring, so while she likely won’t be in top form, it’ll be nice to see her back on the competition floor.

The remaining competitors include all-arounders Sofia Arosio, Martina Basile, Sara Berardinelli, Desiree Carofiglio, Caterina Cereghetti, Benedetta Ciammarughi, Giada Grisetti, Francesca Linari, Sara Ricciardi, and Sydney Saturnino as well as specialists Clara Colombo (UB), Arianna Rocca (VT/BB/FX), and Caterina Vitale (VT/FX).

The competition will start at 5:00 pm local time (which is 11 am ET) on day one, and at 3:00 pm local time (9 am ET) on day two. Fans can watch live with a subscription to Volare, the new official Italian gymnastics channel which covers both artistic and rhythmic competitions.

Article by Valeria Violi
Photo by Cristina Boggio