Last weekend, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June, the Italian Air Force Volunteers School (SVAM) hosted the “World Triathlon Para Cup 2024” and the “Italian Aquathlon Championship”, two major international sporting events held under the aegis of the Italian Triathlon Federation with the collaboration and support of the Municipality of Taranto, the Italian Paralympic Committee and the Apulia Region.
Especially on Saturday 8th June, a little over seven months after the success of the first edition, the evocative setting of the SVAM hosted the World Triathlon Para Cup, an international event in which 80 para-athletes from all over the world competed to obtain the points necessary for qualification for the upcoming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Inside the competition venue, hosted and set up within the SVAM, the participants tackled a 750m swim, a 20km cycle or handbike ride and a 5km run with great satisfaction and very important results from the Azzurro team, which achieved as many as four golds (Giovanni Achenza, Manuel Lama and his guide Alessandro Degasperi, Gianluca Valori and Veronica Yoko Plebani) and one silver (Giovanni Sciaccaluga).
Sunday 9th June, instead, took place on Italian Aquathlon Championship in which over 320 athletes tackled a course divided into an initial 2.5 km running leg, followed by a 1 km swim and a final 2.5 km running section, with the national women's title being won by Francesca Calvauna and the men's by Miguel Espuna Larramona.
It Commander of the SVAM, Colonel Alessandro Del Buono, on the sidelines of the events attended also by those who frequent the 28th Initial Fixed-Term Volunteer (VFI) Course Ladone II, who on the coming 11th of July will take centre stage at the solemn oath-taking ceremony, wanted to emphasise the importance of collaborating in close synergy with local institutions since “only through a shared purpose and mutual support is it possible to carry out activities for the benefit of the community and, above all, to support issues of great social importance” and furthermore, he wished to highlight the great educational value that the themes of sport and social inclusion are able to convey to young people, underlining how important the presence and participation of the Volunteers currently in training at SVAM has been, who were able to receive positive examples of determination and great self-denial from the competing athletes.
The SVAM is the sole national training and instructional centre that provides the basic military and moral training of enlisted personnel destined to serve in the Italian Air Force, as well as their related specific professional education. The School reports to the Air Force Schools Command / 3rd Air Force Region, one of the three Joint Commands of the Armed Force tasked with ensuring the selection, recruitment, military, cultural and professional training of Air Force personnel and flight training (at an international level), through the study and adoption of innovative teaching and training methodologies focused on the learner and informed by innovation, creativity, optimisation of human and material resources, eco-sustainability, constant dialogue with institutions and the territory in service of the community.
