At Cucine Lube, everything is ready for the return to the gym. Tomorrow, Wednesday 17 August, the coach Chicco Blengini will meet the trainer Massimo Merazzi and the other members of the red and white staff to define the last details in view of the resumption of work scheduled for the following day, Thursday 18 August.
“The first training session will be in the weight room – explains Merazzi -, but already at 9.30 on Thursday we will meet the five athletes who will start preparing for the collection of equipment and medical examinations!”. At the starting line there will be Francesco D’Amico, Enrico Diamantini, Mattia Gottardo, Daniele Sottile and Ivan Zaytsev. “It will be a very stimulating pre-season – declares the coach -. The path to be tackled is comparable to that of last year in terms of timing. We will start with a 4 plus 1 because the Tsar, having worked with the national team until the beginning of August, will train separately in the initial phase. Gottardo worked hard until July 17 with the youth team and the other members kept fit individually ”. At the end of August Gabi Garcia Fernandez will join and at the beginning of September Isac Viana Santos, an athlete who gave up the World Cup to get back in shape! La Lube will have the whole group in late September, but this does not worry the staff. “In reality it goes better than in other years – reveals the guardian angel of the Italian champions – We have 7 cooks in the World Cup. If a selection with one or more red and white went to the final it would end three weeks before the start of the tournament and the players would return after a few more days of rest. Times will be tight only for Aleksandar Nikolov, who will also take part in the youth European Championship. To be concrete, the only Bulgarian hitter would be missing from the test matches of the Biella tournament on 24 and 25 September “. A hot appetizer, given that Modena, Monza and Trento will take part in the event. “The team may feel deprived of responsibility after the changes in the transfer market – specifies Merazzi -, but those who have the Lube mentality and wear the Scudetto want to win!”. After a tough but winning 2021/22 season, the coach is looking ahead. “I will work with a younger group – he concludes – and we will face a 12-team tournament, with a shorter Regular Season and fewer midweek commitments. The hope is that Covid-19-related stops and other unforeseen events will not be repeated! “.
