Benedetta Pilato is one of the shining stars of Italian swimming who has announced her participation in the seventh edition of the Grand Prix City of Naples - Vecchio Amaro del Capo Trophy. More than a month away from the swimming event scheduled for May 11 and 12 at the Scandone pool, the organization, led by Eventualmente events & communication of Luciano Cotena, with the technical direction entrusted to Francesco Vespe, has indeed made official the participation of the champion from Taranto, who boasts a world title, two silver, and two bronze medals in long course pools along with two other medals (a silver and a bronze) at the World Championships in short course and four golds overall at the Europeans. Pilato will also be a protagonist for Italy at the upcoming Olympics, scheduled to start at the end of July, and in Naples (two and a half months from the Paris event) she could really put on a show.
Along with her, many names have already been announced by the promoters of the Grand Prix: Marco Orsi (a world bronze and four world medals in short course), Silvia Di Pietro (eight world medals in 25-meter pool), Costanza Cocconcelli, Chiara Tarantino, Edoardo Giorgetti (all medalists at the absolute level at Worlds and Europeans), Matilde Biagiotti, Daniele Del Signore, as well as a series of talents that revolve in the respective national teams. Saturday, May 11, and Sunday, May 12, therefore, promise to be days of great swimming at the Scandone, with a full program that will run from 8 am to 7 pm, thanks to the certain presence of about 1,200 athletes coming from eleven regions (Basilicata, Calabria, Emilia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Molise, Tuscany, Apulia, and Sicily in addition to Campania), with over 400 participants coming from outside the region.
"The Grand Prix City of Naples," says Cotena, "confirms itself as one of the most interesting meetings on the national scene, temporally placed in a phase of the pre-Olympic preparation, about a month from the Settecolli of Rome, which will be the last event that can qualify athletes for the Paris Games." It is no coincidence that the Neapolitan event, during its previous editions, has hosted the greatest swimmers of the national panorama: from Federica Pellegrini to Filippo Magnini, through Gabriele Detti and Luca Dotto to Nicolò Martinenghi and Martina Caramignoli. All races are scheduled: 50, 100, and 200 of every style; 400, 800 (women) and 1,500 (men) freestyle and 200 and 400 medley.