50 years after her first world record, 8’52″973 in the 800m in Belgrade, Novela Calligaris is looking for another record: to celebrate this world record that amazed everyone by crossing the Strait of Messina, rough currents and jellyfish. Great swimmer ( A vivid sporting paradox: she is allergic to chlorine and, like almost all swimming champions, wary of the sea) she dives on Saturday also to promote the image of the National Association of Olympians and Italians, which she heads: in fact, she will be accompanied in the water by the Olympian Daniele Massala, who had a past in Youth swim team before moving to pentathlon.
She prepares with her typical, Padawan-Roman perseverance: of course – as she tells her friends – jellyfish and some “tactical” mistakes (she bought the wrong diving suit, made of water-absorbent fabric, so with every blow she carries behind her an excessive load with obvious inflammatory consequences in the arms) to complicate the approach. But now it’s in great shape. “I’m a perfectionist – she reassures those around her – I did my best to get to the appointment, of course I will.” At almost 70 years old (she turns 69 in December), Lita Novella, who finished swimming very young with a competitive spirit and faced the waves of life with unparalleled style, is back in the pool. In fact, judging from some pictures, the class of a stroke, even at sea, is intact: in fact, not only the many causes and suggestions of the event, the 3.5 kilometers that separate the island from the mainland, swam close to the sea. Calligaris could become both an educational material and a documentary. These days, Kaligaris trains directly on the “Field of Competition” in Messina with repetitions from 1000 to 1800 meters, in which he alternates representation obligations on the spot (among other things, the Italian federation is 75 years old): between Sella and N. Indeed, everyone wants Charybdis because that wren that frightened the Walkyries out of the world’s swimming remained in the collective imagination of the Italians.
The swimmer enjoys the situation for a while, shakes hands with a local official, snaps a few photos, and then dives back in towards her unexpected record.
Reproduction © Copyright ANSA Agency
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