Final countdown for the return to the gym of Cucine Lube Civitanova! Preparations are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Thursday 18 August, at the Eurosuole Forum. At 9.30 in the morning, five of the fourteen red and white will present themselves at the palas for the delivery of the technical material and the usual medical examinations, while in the afternoon the first seasonal training will be staged in the reduced-rank weight room. Among those present, in addition to the new arrivals Francesco D’Amico and Mattia Gottardo, there will be Enrico Diamantini, Ivan Zaytsev and Daniele Sottile. The latter today blows out 43 candles, confirming himself as one of the longest-lived players of the SuperLega Credem Banca.
Record. In the top flight, in front of the setter of the cooks in this special ranking there are only Samuele Papi, who in 2016/17 took the field for the Play Offs 5th place at 43 years 9 months and 16 days, and the lifter Vieira De Oliveira Raphael , also this year in the roster of Verona, fresh from the defeat in the Semifinal of the Play Offs 5th place 2021/22 collected at 42 years 10 months and 23 days last May 7 in Piacenza. Sottile’s momentary record was slightly lower, on the scoresheet in Race 4 of the Scudetto Final, won 3-0 against Perugia on 11 May and earned Lube’s seventh Scudetto.
The setter Daniele Sottile: “It will be a beautiful year, waiting to be discovered!”. My birthday, which I celebrate as a family, comes to the end of the holidays as in every season and marks the resumption of business. We are on the eve of athletic training! I state that I never stopped and continued to keep fit in the summer in the Eurosuole Forum gym, this is my trademark. I know that the other companions have also been very busy in the warm months! I am ready to face this adventure with an extra year and with a great desire to win again together with a revolutionized group, younger but of great quality and full of enthusiasm. We have lost a bit of experience, but I will make myself available to the team and I will try to make a valid contribution, on and off the pitch, even with advice to the youngest … if they want them! After the joy of the 2021/22 Scudetto, even if according to many we will not start from the front row but a step below, we will try to go all the way in all competitions because we are Lube. This is what we must aim for after a physiological running-in period! With time and work in the gym, the team will be able to raise the level “.
