today Martinenghi silver in the 100 breaststroke - Corriere.it

He did not defend the 100m breaststroke title won a year ago in Budapest, but Nicol Martinenghi still took a silver medal (ex aequo with Fink and the Dutchman Kamminga), in the excellent time of 58.72” behind the Chinese Qin, who immediately appeared in another category at this moment, gold in the impressive 57.69”.

I don't know, amazing, now can I say? Yesterday I wanted to try to go into the side lanes, I thought I'd enter at seven, which was my favourite, but for a cent I ended up at 1, Martinenghi's first words. An incredible race, I tried to sell my skin more expensive, the weather is not good at all, but a silver that I take home as if it were gold. Congratulations to the Chinese, he will be the man to beat again next year, now I'm about to pass out and I'm going to put myself on the ground for a moment.

A difficult medal to predict (he himself said looking at the seasonal times, I'm not the man to beat), almost unsought, even if it is always difficult to tell in this constant surfing in balance between the desire to win (the baleful anger of Achilles who comes to him in the race, as he says), that of dosing energy by looking at a more distant horizon (the Paris Olympics, of course) and the need to open one's head to different interests, also in order not to be won over by obsessions, and the vacant throne of King Adam Pe aty, lost in his depression problems, remind us of the risks of the case. Because swimming is almost everything, but it doesn't have to be everything. Not for Martinenghi, at least, that in this pre-Olympic year has decided to try to breathe a little. A little more attention to fashion, today a hobby of his and tomorrow who knows, a little time dedicated to sponsors who never fail to look for him. On the other hand Tete, the nickname given to him by his brother Jacopo and which he likes very much, has a sunny and tender air, he is the one in the company that one cannot help but love. If he hadn't been a swimmer, who knows, perhaps he would have become a goldsmith like Father Samuele, or he would have worked in the family pastry shop, instead becoming an ace frogman, the one who was in the right place at the right time, when Peaty wasn't there. This year he gave up something, but from September it will be a single pull to Paris, where he wants to improve on the two bronze medals won in Tokyo (100m breaststroke and 4x100m medley).