20 Jul 2009 at 22:39 | Published by:  | Views: 8532 | News search

All podiums at Italian Youth and Senior Championships.  (Photo by Nicola Bellucci 2009)

During last weekend the Italian Youth and Senior Championships has been played on the concrete course in Paderno Dugnano.
The course in Paderno is a very old and difficult one (EC 1988 and ECup 1998 has been played on it) and offered several very close and intense matches.

The program of the tournament was made of 5 rounds for the team event (senior teams and youth teams) plus 1 more round for the individual final event (youthboys, schoolboys, senior men and senior ladies categories).

Let's start with the youth category that got the two best individual results of the tournament.
The youth Italian champion 2009 is Lorenzo Ciompi (ASMC Follonica, the title defender) that got also the best individual result of the tournament with 190 strokes ( 31.67 average) and a very special 27 round which is really a rare score on this very hard course. Second place to Lorenzo Levis (GSP Vergiate) who ended with a total score of 193 ( 32.17 average) and bronze medal to Lorenzo Bellucci (ASDMC Follonica) that ended with a total score of 197 strokes ( 32.83 average) and a very good last round with 29 strokes that allowed him to recover from 5th to 3rd place.

In the schoolboys category there had been a very close match between Emanuele Prestinari (MGC Novi Ligure) and Daniele La Rocca (MMC Paderno).
The two youngster (14 years old) played a very close match during all the tournament and they were tied until lane 8 of the last round, when Emanuele took a decisive advantage on Daniele.
In the end Emanuele got the title (his second schoolboys title after that one won in 2003 when he was only 8 years old!) with a total score of 194 strokes (3rd best overall result of the tournament - 32.33 average) against Daniele 198 total strokes ( 33.00 average).

The senior male category showed a very close match between the actual European senior vice-champion Michele Graffeo (MMC Paderno) and the "forever young" Sergio Prestinari (MGC Novi Ligure, 71 years old, 4th place at EC 1977 in Castellanza). The two players were head to head until the last lane, where Graffeo scored an ace and Sergio didn't arrive to the goal for just a couple of cm, when all people were already thinking to the playoff. Michele Graffeo is the Italian Senior Champion 2009 (2nd title after that one won in 2007) with a total score of 194 strokes ( 32.33 average) against Sergio's total score of 195 strokes ( 32.50 average). Bronze medal went to Pierluigi Marchiani (GSP Cusano) with a total score of 197 strokes ( 32.83 average) after a playoff with Gabriele Rovera (GSP Lozza) that ended at lane 2.

The senior ladies category was dominated by Ornella Campora (MSC San Romolo) that took the title with a big margin: 194 total strokes ( 32.33 average), same result than Michele Graffeo winner in the men category, 10 strokes better than Antonella Flamini (MC Aponense) and Emilia Prina (MMC Paderno) that got 2nd and 3rd place after playoff. This is the 3rd title for Ornella (European senior bronze medalist in 2007) after those won in 2005 and 2006.

The youth team event was dominated by ASMC Follonica that scored a total of 499 strokes ( average 33.33 with a wide margin of 42 strokes on MMC Paderno home team and 48 on SV Lana team.
The winning team, formed by Lorenzo Bellucci, Lorenzo Ciompi, Nicola Bellucci, confirmed its 2008 title and was also the best overall team results also considering senior teams.
The senior team event was won by MGC Novi Ligure, that got the first senior team title of its history. After a slow start (4th place after 1st round), MGC Novi Ligure took the lead and mantained that until the end of the tournament, with a total score of 503 strokes (average 33.53 ), 9 better than MC Monza (title defender) that got silver medal and 10 better than GSP Lozza that got bronze medal.

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