Pallanuoto Salerno and Aqavion are the champions of HaBaWaBa International Festival 2018. Both of them have triumphed on the last day of the event organized by Waterpolo Development at Bella Italia & EFA Village in Lignano Sabbiadoro (Italy): the Festival was joined by more than 4.000 people (tomorrow the exact data by Delta I.S.O. company). Three thousand of them – including the Italian Settebello head coach Sandro Campagna, testimonial of the HaBaWaBa International Festival 2018, and the Croatian guru Ratko Rudic (brand new Pro Recco coach) – were in the olympic pool watching the finals.
In the U9 tournament last game, Pallanuoto Salerno coached by Tonino Luongo beat 4-2 Pro Recco Academy Nuotatori Genovesi, led by coach Giovanna Rosi: little players were excited in front of the crowd, singing the Italian anthem and exchanged fair play gestures, as traditional HaBaWaBa ceremonial. This is the 3rd victory in HaBaWaBa U9 category of Pallanuoto Salerno, that already triumphed in 2012 and 2013.
Afterwards, the olympic pool also hosted the U11 final, a Neapolitan derby between two teams coming from towns close to Napoli: Aqavion (from Brusciano) and San Mauro Tigri (from Casalnuovo di Napoli). Aqavion won 5-1, however the defeated team was certainly not less than the winners in matter of fair play: after having complimented the opposing coach Marco Maione, San Mauro coach Oreste Di Pasqua jumped into the pool together with his athletes to celebrate the conclusion of a great competition.
While we’re writing, Palazzetto dello Sport of the Bella Italia & EFA Village is hosting the closing ceremony of the Festival. During the event, Fair Play awards will be given to one teams of each competition: Laxerti My Sport of Genoa in the U11 category and the Leoncini Roma Vis Nova Perugia will receive the award from Jeno Kamuti, former fencing champion and president of the International Fair Play Committee. During the closing ceremony will be also awarded the Golden Baby, the youngest player of the entire HaBaWaBa International Festival: Tommaso Dottori, born on October 1st 2011, player of Leoncini Roma Vis Nova Perugia.
Aqavion, U11 champions of 2018
As well all of 136 participating teams will be awarded for their participation in the Festival: testimonial Sandro Campagna will deliver the trophies among with a team of Olympic champions such as Alexandra Araujo, Tibor Benedek, Zsolt Varga and Marco D’Altrui.
Tomorrow HaBaWaBa International Festival will end and teams will come back home. However the HaBaWaBa world doesn’t stop: tomorrow is also the day of the arrival of the 49 teams of HaBaWaBa PLUS U13, another Waterpolo Development event dedicated to older waterpolo players. HaBaWaBa never stops!
Roster of Pallanuoto Salerno, HaBaWaBa U9 2018 champion: Diego Barela, Francesco Carone, Alessio Giannattasio, Claudio Pettonati, Julia Puleo, Pedro Puleo, Amedeo Roscigno, Niccolò Salmieri, Sofia Salzano. All. Tonino Luongo e Fabio Forte.
Roster of Aqavion, HaBaWaBa U11 2018 champion: Giuseppe Barletta, Francesco Barletta, Salvatore Di Palma, Giuseppe Mattei, Emanuele Miraldi, Michele Panico, Salvatore Perna, Pierluigi Rea, Samuele Serpico, Alessandro Tiberio. All. Marco Maione e Giuseppe Testa.
All the winners of HaBaWaBa International Festival 2018
