The Italian Swimming Federation has announced their team for the 2013 Mediterranean Games, which will be held in Mersin, a southern province of Turkey, from June 20-30th. This will be the 17th Mediterranean Games, which was the brainchild of Muhammed Taher Pasha, who was the chairman of the Egyptian Olympic Committee, in 1948. The games occur once every four years and include all the nations that border the Mediterranean Sea.
This year’s event will host a record 6000 athletes representing 24 countries which include:
Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
The Italian team will include seven swimmers; Fabio Scozzoli, Matteo Rivolta, Federico Turrini, Mattia Pesce, Francesco Pavone, Ilaria Bianchi and Stefania Pirozzi who all rank in the top 10 in the world in individual events.
The full team of 46 includes:
Male
Luca Baggio, Flavio Bizzarri, Niccolò Bonacchi, Gherardo Bruni, Piero Codia, Andrea Mitchell D’Arrigo, Alex Di Giorgio, Luca Dotto, Andrea Farru, Matteo Furlan, Luca Leonardi, Damiano Lestingi, Gianluca Maglia, Luca Marin, Matteo Milli, Marco Orsi, Francesco Pavone, Mattia Pesce, Stefano Mauro Pizzamiglio, Samuel Pizzetti, Luca Pizzini, Matteo Rivolta, Michele Santucci, Fabio Scozzoli, Andrea Toniato and Federico Turrini.
Female
Emanuela Albenzi, Arianna Barbieri, Ilaria Bianchi, Martina Caramignoli, Diletta Carli, Elisa Celli, Giulia De Ascentis, Martina De Memme, Elena Di Liddo, Silvia Di Pietro, Ambra Esposito, Erika Ferraioli, Elena Gemo, Michela Guzzetti, Laura Letrari, Chiara Masini Luccetti, Margherita Panziera, Stefania Pirozzi, Aurora Ponselè and Carlotta Toni.
The staff will include:
Roberto Del Bianco, Marco Bonifazi, Cesare Butini, Maurizio Coconi, Claudio Rossetto, Raffaele Avagnano, Branislav Dinic, Stefano Franceschi, Gianni Leoni and Massimo Meloni.
And Israel?
Israel was not on the list of competing countries for this year’s event
Could be because of the World Maccabiah Games in Israel this year which are July 18-30.
Historically, Israel has not been allowed to compete in the Mediterranean Games. Not entirely certain why, but I would guess has to do with the political situation of the countries involved.
Here’s the French team.
http://www.ffnatation.fr/webffn/calendrier_det.php?idnum=3588
Their big goals of the summer are this meet because they haven’t qualified for Barcelona.
Dear friends at swim swam.
There is no Greek Cypriot country. There is only Cyprus. The only recognized country by the UN,IOC and FINA is the Republic of Cyprus.
JUST TO AVOID MISCONCEPTIONS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS.
Thanks
I apologize Greek Cypriot was how it was written into the one release that stated all of the countries competing.