Autumn of splendor for Giacomo Gambaafter a sad spring on the tatami and a summer as a spectator. The son of art won the bronze medal in the 81 kg tournament at the Military World Championships in Tashkent where the Carabinieri standard bearer confirmed the good things he had already shown off two weeks earlier in Prague.
The medal
Italy a valanga in Uzbek land, dove the Azzurri take the podiums in the event dedicated to state corps athletes, in which the twenty-five year old who grew up in Forza e Constanza beat the Armenian Andreas in the first round, losing to the host Sobirov in the quarter-finals, and then making up for it with interests in recoveries. In the repechage draw Gamba first defeated the Turkmen Myradov, then the Hungarian Toth, then the Russian Kakharov and finally the Kazakh Narkulov. A well-deserved bronze therefore for the competitive intensity shown by the judoka from Brescia. “I’m happy with the sensations I’m feeling in general.”
A regenerated Gamba, therefore, completely different also in their approach to the less toned one they left behind in April, eliminated in the first round of the European Championships. «I want to enjoy this adventure. We’ll see what happens now I just want to have fun doing the sport I love».
And in fact the smile printed on his face when the medal dangles on his chest and the pleasant tone of his voice are symptoms of a tranquility of mind, a harbinger of excellent sensations even during combat. «Thanks to all those people who help me best express who I am. It’s a team game. Thanks to the Carabinieri sports center, I am happy to have brought him this medal.”
A change of mind
That something had changed after the forced summer break, given that the Paris Games had remained a chimera for Gamba, had already been intuited at the end of September in European Open in Pragawhere the carabiniere had sat down on the lowest step of the podium.
Four victories for the judoka from Brescia also in that context, with easy victories against the Swiss Thien Oulevey and the Frenchman Spiros Eleftheriadis. Then, after the knockout in the quarterfinals against the Georgian Iraki Beroshvili, Gamba had overcome the Czech Jan Svoboda and the Hungarian Botond Toth.
