Judo Riccione: Morgana De Paoli is the Italian Under18 champion for the fourth time

Morgana De Paoli is no longer surprising. The Riccione athlete, still sixteen years old, on March 6 presented herself at the PalaPellicone in Ostia Lido, accompanied by the technical director of the Judo Polisportiva Riccione section, Maestro Giuseppe Longo, to face the national final under 18 as a favorite, being first in the ranking list and unbeaten among the Under 18s since last June. With four matches concluded before the limit by marking spectacular ippons (the KO of judo) to their respective opponents, she brilliantly won her fourth Italian title in the +70 kg category; silver to Lucia Magli (San Mamolo) and bronze to Cinzia Caponetto (Judo Virtus) and Klaudia Cannataro (Kodokan Judo).

The talented Riccione is already the best judoka that the Rimini province has ever been able to boast: over 4 gold medals and a silver among the Under 18s, Morgana last year also won the silver medal among the Under 21s, touching the call-up. for the European Championships.

“We are very satisfied with the result even if Morgana was still far from her ideal level of form, explains DT Giuseppe Longo -. This year we have set ourselves ambitious goals and the training planning is only at the beginning, also because in addition to being an excellent athlete, “Mo” (as we like to call her) is also a model student at the demanding Karis classical high school. . Last year, also due to Covid restrictions, we participated in the European circuit in a marginal way, but this time it will be different. Already next weekend we will be in Zagreb in a European Cup race where we will test ourselves with numerous athletes from all over Europe and where Morgana with the support of the technicians and the whole group will have to give her all “.

Thanks to the result obtained in Ostia, the Polisportiva Riccione conquers the 5th place in the women’s ranking for companies at national level and the first at the regional level (equal with the CUS Parma), to which is added the wonderful news that in the general classification 2021 the Riccione club entered the top 100, registering 51st place out of hundreds of sports clubs nationwide and first of all in Romagna.

“Morgana’s great results no longer surprise us, but this athlete makes us proud every day – says the president of Polisportiva Riccione, Giuseppe Solfrini – For this we thank her, all the technical staff and Maestro Longo for what they are doing despite a logistic situation not optimal. For our Judo section next October will be the 10th year of activity and we hope to be able to celebrate this beautiful milestone in an appropriate way “.