From tennis to rowing, one year to become a champion

Pisa, June 23 - From tennis to the title of Italian rowing champion in less than a year. This is the successful sporting career of Gianmarco Matteoni , fresh from first place and subsequent Italian title in the category of the single beginners at the Italian rowing championships that took place on June 21 and 22 in Gavirate (Varese) with Cus Pisa.

The eighteen-year-old new Italian champion took up rowing last summer , also driven by the passion of his father Raffaele, a former historic rower of the Palio di San Ranieri . Last week he also won the Tuscan championship in the junior single category on Lake Chiusi (Siena). Matteoni literally outclassed his opponents in the final of the men's single beginners, triumphing with a time of 7'47”84 with a 13” advantage over the second place. "I started rowing - said the new Italian champion - because in tennis I felt that I wasn't using all my strength to the full, while rowing allows me to express myself to the maximum of my possibilities". "It was a long season and especially complicated at the beginning - added his coach Luca Romani - due to the clear difficulties of adaptation that arise when you change a sport. However, we have always worked with extreme serenity and commitment, and in the end the result we were aiming for has arrived. Now we celebrate and then back to the next objectives". The success of the young athlete from Pisa has caused great enthusiasm among the managers of the rowing section of Cus Pisa Luigi Mostardi, Flavio Ricci and Mirko Barbieri, who have underlined "the importance of this title which represents the first gold medal in the history of Cherubino in an Italian rowing category championship".

"This is a historic result for Cus Pisa rowing - concluded the deputy vice president of the Pisan sports center, Giulio Messerini - and in a short time the new management has already achieved a lot, from the national university championships to this exceptional victory. I thank the entire section for the passion and work they do every day".