It was a day full of emotion for the San Marino Team at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto 2026, with boules taking centre stage. In Montemesola, Enrico Dall’Olmo and Jacopo Frisoni secured their place in the gold-medal final of the men’s doubles, while Frisoni also qualified for the individual final. Tomorrow will therefore see four medal contests for the blue-and-white colours, with two finals for gold and two matches for bronze.
The boules and cycling events were attended by Their Excellencies the Captains Regent, Alice Mina and Vladimiro Selva, together with the Secretary of State for Sport, Rossano Fabbri, the President of the CONS (San Marino National Olympic Committee), Christian Forcellini, and the Secretary General, Eros Bologna, underlining the closeness of San Marino’s institutions to the delegation taking part in the Mediterranean showcase.
BOULES – Montemesola provided the sweetest moments of the day. Enrico Dall’Olmo and Jacopo Frisoni booked their spot in the men’s doubles gold-medal final, beating the Libyan pairing of Alswesi-Zantouti 10-3 in the semi-final. Jacopo Frisoni’s day didn’t end there, as he also shone in the individual event, defeating Turkey’s Kaplan 10-5 to reach the final for gold.
Tomorrow morning’s boules programme will open at 8:30am with the women’s individual bronze-medal final, which will see Stella Paoletti take on Croatia’s Ana Junigovic, following today’s 9-3 defeat.
At 9:30am, it will be Jacopo Frisoni’s turn, competing in the individual gold-medal final against France’s Corbihan.
At 11:40am, attention turns to the women’s doubles bronze-medal final, featuring Stella and Giada Paoletti, who were defeated today in an all-Italian derby by the Crescenzi-Picchio pairing 7-4.
The day will close at 12:50pm with the men’s doubles gold-medal final, in which Dall’Olmo and Frisoni will face the Croatian pair Piric-Zure.
SWIMMING – It was also the third day of competition for San Marino’s swimmers, who continued to improve with two new national records set at the Torre d’Ayala Swimming Stadium in Taranto.
The first was set by Alessandro Rebosio, who completed the 100m freestyle in 52.34 seconds, finishing 18th. In the 50m breaststroke, Giacomo Casadei set a new national record, stopping the clock at 28.84 seconds and finishing tenth overall.
Ilaria Ceccaroni also delivered a convincing performance, clocking 58.26 seconds in the second heat of the 100m freestyle, a time that secured her 11th place overall. The morning session closed with Margherita Gregoroni’s 800m freestyle, which she completed in 9:20.09, racing in the same heat as Slovenia’s Spela Perse, who finished first in 9:18.04.
CYCLING – Taranto also hosted the road cycling race, with Valentina Venerucci and Andrea Chiarucci tackling circuits of 77 kilometres for the women and 140 kilometres for the men.
Venerucci, who set off at 9:00am wearing bib number 71, crossed the finish line in front of Taranto’s Palazzo del Governo in 23rd place, completing the race in 2h08’26” out of 32 starters. Andrea Chiarucci, who started with bib number 111, did not finish the race, which was won by Italy’s Tommaso Dati.
