The first Italian gold medal at the Universiade in NAPLES has the smiling and cheerful face of Erica Cipressa, who won the women's foil in a no-contest final against the French Morgane Patru (15-3), with a team supremacy also confirmed by the bronze medal won by Camilla Mancini in the same event (a narrow defeat in the semi-final for the Lazio player at the hands of Patru 15-13). The 23-year-old Venetian, daughter of Andrea Cipressa, Olympic champion and national coach, lived up to the predictions that saw her as number one in the draw, reaching the final after getting rid of Romanian Calugareanu in the semi-final (15-10). The Italian double in women's foil erases the zero from the Italian medal table and comes at the end of a day that until then had provided only one satisfaction, with the silver of Fiammetta Rossi in the trap, in the competition won by the Taipei athlete Liu Wan-Yu. The Italian medal count thus rises to eleven medals: 1 gold, 2 silvers and 8 bronzes. In fact, the girls of the artistic gymnastics team Carlotta Ferlito, Lara Mori and Martina Rizzelli also won bronze. Yesterday's third place in swimming by Ilaria Cusinato in the 400 medley was also confirmed after the appeal presented by British athlete Abbie Wood was rejected today. In other sports, the adventure of the Italian teams in seven-a-side rugby got off to a bad start: a clear defeat for the men, beaten by Japan 17-0. The women's defeat, however, was narrow, with the Canadians beating them 14-12. For the men, however, redemption came in the afternoon when they got the better of France (33-17) with Luca Zini the protagonist and author of 13 points. In the diving preliminaries Laura Bilotta is in second place in the 3-meter springboard, while in artistic gymnastics one of the arrows of the Italian expedition, Lara Mori, leads in the women's individual. The Italian football team is making good progress as they defeated Ukraine 2-0 in Cava de' Tirreni today and are flying into the quarter-finals. The tennis tournament is underway in the arena set up on the NAPLES seafront which has hosted the Davis Cup several times: in the men's field, a good debut for one of the two Italian representatives in the draw, the Roman Gian Marco Ortenzi, who loses the first set against the Slovakian Marko "due to the emotion of playing in such a beautiful place" as he will admit at the end, but he is good at getting back into the match and coming out at the distance (46;75;61 the final score). For him now a very tough obstacle, the number 2 seed, the Russian Gakhov. Italy's debut in the table tennis tournament was mixed: the men did well, beating Australia 3-0. The women did badly, defeated by Romania 3-0. On the other hand, the Italian men's volleyball team did very well, beating Switzerland 3-0 in their debut match at the Palasele in Eboli. While judo continues to disappoint. In men's basketball, another narrow victory for the Americans who, after having beaten Finland with a comeback last night, today got the better of Ukraine with another sprint finish by just one point (58-57). Dario Di Martino only fifth in the 10-meter pistol. Matteo Ciampi and Stefano Di Cola reached the 200m freestyle swimming final, and hopes are high that the Italian national anthem will soon be played again.
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