Summer 2010: Sport Events

The next few months do not look brilliant or full for Tuscan sports.

SOCCER

The pride of Tuscan sport, the Fiorentina soccer club, did much better in international competitions than in the Italian Serie A. Norwegian referee Ovrebo missed a blatant off-side kick that allowed Bayern of Munich to score an undeserved goal, beat Fiorentina and get to the Champions League finals. In the Italian Serie A, the Florence team that had made it to the top four in the past four years, and then ended in eleventh place this season (the next Serie A championship starts at the end of August).

BASKETBALL

So, it was the Montepaschi Siena basketball team that kept the spirit alive by dominating the whole season, leading the other three top teams (Caserta, Cantù and Milano) by 16 points. Every team’s goal was to avoid having to play Siena in the quarter-playoffs (starting 20 May) for the best out of five games.

Montepaschi Siena is the strongest of the Italian teams having won three consecutive national championships, and Italy’s national team even hired the coach Simone Pianigiani on a part-time basis, sharing him with the Siena. The trip from Florence to the Mens Sana sports arena in Siena takes about one hour, and it will be worth every minute of the ride! For schedules, etc., check out www.menssanabasket.it . There are three Americans  on the Siena team, playmaker Terrell McIntyre (from North Carolina, formerly of the Fayetteville Patriots, played in the NBDL championships in 2003), forward  David Hawkins (known as “D-Hawk), forward Shaun Stonerook (from Ohio), but the team is really a “multinational” with Bosnian Henry Domercant, Nikolaos Zisis from Greece, Ksistos Lavrinovic from Lithuania, Uros Slokar from Slovenia, and Romain Stato, from the Central Africa Republic who played for the NBA San Antonio Spurs.

Some time this summer, the Florence sports arena – Pala Mandela – will host a tournament in preparation for the European basketball championships featuring national teams.

VOLLEYBALL

And another sport will offer some great entertainment: volleyball and the countdown for the men’s volleyball world championships to be played in Italy this fall. It will start in Milan on 25 September, then Florence will join in on 2 October for the quarterfinals before hosting the finals for ninth to twelfth place.

On 18 and 20 June, Montecatini and Florence will again be the stage for men’s volleyball with the double Tuscan “stop” for the World League featuring Italy vs. Serbia.

For the record, the Codyeco team from Santa Croce (Province of Pisa) has advanced from B1 to A2.

HANG GLIDING

Over the coming months hundreds of pilots will be participating in the inter-regional hang gliding championships. The scores in a series of trials in their respective regions will produce the Pro – the most expert pilots, and Fun – for beginners, ratings. This second category is monitored by tutors – experienced pilots or tutors to help the less skilled or those who are competing for the first time. In fact, the Fun category is the “training” stage for pilots who want to enter competitive flying. The goal is to improve skills and make it to greater heights as it were.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

In the national American Football league – not exactly the game played in the USA – the regular season featuring the Guelfi started on 13-14 March and will end on 5-6 June. Playoffs will begin on 19-20 June with the quarterfinals, semifinals on 26-27 June  and the grand final on 3 July. Eighteen teams have entered the A2 championships – four more than last season. In the four rounds they will fight to play as many games as possible. The Guelfi Firenze are in the Centro round along with the Redskins Verona, Mastini Verona and Seamen Milan but they will also have to face the Muli Trieste and the Saints Padova in two inter-division games. The teams with the best hopes of winning the final victory – along with the Guelfi Firenze – are the current champions Barbari Roma, Titans Romagna, Draghi Udine, Angels Pesaro and the Predatori Golfo del Tigullio

GOLF

20 to 23 May are the dates for the «Mugello Tuscany Open-Challenge Tour Europeo» at the Golf Club Una Poggio dei Medici, on the prestigious course designed by Baldovino Dassù and Alvise Rossi. About 150 golfers are expected.

JU-JITSU

The first ju-jitsu academy in Florence has opened at the gym of the Istituti Paritari Cavour Pacinotti, Viale Machiavelli 31 (near Porta Romana). This fascinating discipline is one of the most “complete” of all the martial arts, and it is accessible to all regardless of age, sex or constitution because it emphasizes skill rather than strength. Ju-jitsu techniques focus on self-defense and so there are no limitations as to techniques: you can kick, punch, elbow, knee, project, wrestle on the ground, use knives and sticks basing your actions on a knowledge of the body’s many vulnerable points.

Although it is essentially a method of bare-handed combat, the use of traditional weapons (KOBUDO) the Katana (sword), the Bo (staff), Nunchaku (two sticks connected with a short rope) , the Sai (a dagger-shaped truncheon), the Tonfa (a sort of baton) and the Kama (a sickle-like weapon), completes the vast technical range of jujitsu. For info visit: http://www.jujitsu-firenze.net

WOMEN’S WATER POLO

Saturday 22 May, Fiorentina Water polo will play the first of the semifinal matches (best of three) against Rapallo. If Fiorentina wins the best of the five matches scheduled for June, the Florentine swimmers will play in the finals against their longtime rivals, Orizzonte Catania (favored to win the championship, and reigning champions for the past two years…ever since they took the prize from Fiorentina in 2007).

TRACK AND FIELD

The San Giovanni Mini-Marathon on 24 June– will be run at night here in Florence – the event that is part competition and part folklore is open to all.

CYCLING

Whether the 2013 world cycling championship will be held in Tuscany – passing through Florence, Lucca, Pistoia and Montecatini will be decided in September. Spain and Flanders are also interested in hosting the event. The chairman of the organizing committee, Claudio Rossi says: “The competition will leave a great legacy here, one that will have great impact on jobs and tourism, which are primary considerations for our committee. I would like to toss out some figures,” he goes on to say, “there will be over three thousand athletes and two thousand accredited members of the press in Florence during the races…”. But it’s still all in the planning stage.

RUGBY

Tuscany is the region of  bell towers and local patriotism –  cities that always fought against each other, and especially with Florence the envy of nearly all the others. There has always been great rivalry between Florence and Prato, but it seems that rugby will finally put an end to it with Prato’s Cavalieri that wants to join Giunti Firenze (formerly Cus Firenze) that is now in the A2 league to play the in the next SuperDieci (super-ten) championships with Italy’s ten – obviously – best teams. It would be a minor miracle for the Tuscan team if it worked out. Rugby has been a enjoying huge and unexpected success here – and not only in the media: audiences and sponsors are raving about the sport. And this success is just as unexpected as any alliance between Prato and Florence, with the matches they will play against each other here.

(Ubaldo Scanagatta is the director of Ubitennis.com)