Swimming Seven Hills Trophy (25-06-2021)

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After a year behind closed doors, we return to Seven Hills Trophy. This time parking is not a problem: I leave the car before the ministry, but going forward I discover that I could have left it even closer. I am slightly late: the program starts at 6.30 pm and I arrive at the entrance around 6.40 pm. Once I arrive, however, I discover that I do not have everything I need to enter: they tell me that I have to check-in. Indeed, the ticket said "check-in is required", but they didn't explain what it was, I thought it was filling out the usual Covid form, instead it's about registering on a website, more or less like for the Golden Gala. The biggest obstacle is the date of birth: you can't write it down, you have to select it from a calendar, which starts from the current month and shows one month at a time. So I have to go back 53 years one month at a time, for a total of 641 months! The entrance steward tells me that usually only  iPhones give problems (and that's not my case) and tells me to go to the next checkpoint and ask for help. In the meantime, the calendar resets and I have to start all over again: I am tempted to stay between the two checkpoint, I can see the pool, but I think I would be noticec and sooner or later they would send me out. I also want to throw away the phone (apart from the swearing that could be heard throughout the pool), I am also tempted to make me about twenty years younger, thinking "who will notice?", But in the end I get to the right date right and enter around 18.50.

My seat is beyond the end of the pool, perfectly aligned with the podium. In addition to the victory ceremony, so I can clearly see the turns at odd lengths and the start of 50 meter races, while in a tight finish I can't see who touches first, not even with binoculars. The seats to be occupied would be 1 in 4, in all the rows, but if there are only two other people in my row, the rows in front and behind are full of people sitting close together (and clearly they are not all living together).

The first race I see are the men's 400 freestyle: first the end of the second series, (the series are numbered backwards: we end up with the first, the best), in which Detti stays with the first for 300 meters, then collapses. One makes it to the podium with 3'49 ", so I think that in this phase of the Olympic preparation we will not see great performances. The next race, the men's 100 breaststroke, immediately proves me wrong: Martinenghi sets the Italian record with 58.29!

Then there are the women's 200 freestyle, the only race in which three series are held in this session instead of two (in the last one, the 1500, there will be only one). Two Italians unknown to me (naturally because of my ignorance, the group in front of me seems to know them well) win the third and second with excellent times, the second even under 1'59 ". In the first, Pellegrini doesn't even need to do her usual crescendo: she is clearly in the lead already from the first length. Then she will close with a normal time for her, while her opponents were not very qualified: the second, a Brazilian, in the general classification will be only tied for third . In most races there will be at least one from minor series on the podium.

The victory ceremonies begin: there is Rosolino who does the interviews, and makes me think of the 2009 World Championships, which marked the end of his high-level career. With Vezzali (present as undersecretary) he talks about Atlanta 1996, to Pellegrini he asks how she can always be happy. She replies that she is happy for her performance and because the attendance is back. Then she throws her jacket on the stands: many are fighting to grab it, at some point I also fear that someone will get hurt.

Another Italian record in the women's 100 breaststroke, with Castiglioni ahead of Pilato (also below the old limit) and Carraro. Pilato will then appear on the podium dancing, also reminding us that she is a young girl, younger than my son. The pace is very fast: I suddenly realize that it is already pat 8pm and we are almost at the end. They close with the women's 1500: Quadarella has already a 5 second lead after 400 meters, at 800 they will be 10, at the end 22. which still has more than a second, and so it will remain until the end. All the others are at least 50 meters behind.

After 1500, I go out, like almost everyone, even if there are still some victory ceremony (and you can hear the speaker calling Quadarella and Caramiglioli several times, they have just enough time to dry). At the exit I see some swimmers, who are unable to recognize each other. I saw a very high level meeting almost only thanks to the Italians: there was only one competition (the female 50 butterfly) with more than one big foreigner. For an athletics fan, it causes a great envy.