Rari Nantes Savona
Founded1948 (1948)
LeagueSerie A1
Based inSavona, Italy
ArenaPiscina Carlo Zanelli
(Capacity: 1,300)
Colors   
PresidentMaurizio Maricone
Head coachAlberto Angelini
Websiterarinantes.sv.it

Rari Nantes Savona is an aquatic sports club based in Savona, Italy, mainly known for its professional men's water polo team, which competes uninterruptedly in the Serie A1, the top division of Italian championship, since 1982; the team has been national champion for three times.

History

The club was founded in 1948 by Mario Caviglione with a group of other water polo enthusiasts. After several years in the amateur leagues, in 1975 the club reached Serie B (back then the second tier of Italian championship) and achieved the promotion in Serie A six years later, in the 1981 season. The first game of Savona in the Top division was a 12−9 home victory against 1980 champions Canottieri Napoli, on 27 February 1982.[1][2]

At the time, the club used to play its home games in the near Albissola Marina and at the Genoa's Crocera swimming pool. The city of Savona built an Olympic-sized pool in 1985, the Piscina Olimpica Comunale, renamed Piscina Carlo Zanelli in 2010 in honour of the recently deceased former mayor of the town. The pool has been the home field of the club ever since, except for a 5 years of absence from 2006 to 2010 due to restructuring works. During the break, the team used to play at the Piscina di Luceto in Albisola Superiore.[1][3]

RN Savona emerged as a top team in the early 1990s. The first trophy of the Ligurian team's history is the 1989−90 Coppa Italia; in the following season, after two second places reached in 1983 and 1990, the club won its first Italian Championship and a second consecutive domestic Cup. Savona won its second Italian title in 1992 and the third in the 2004−05 season; since then the club managed to reach two back-to-back second places in 2009−10 and 2010−11 seasons, losing on both occasions the play-offs final to Pro Recco; the third Coppa Italia dates back to the 1992−93 season. The club made its international debut in the 1983 LEN Cup Winners' Cup. In 2012 the team, defeating in the final game Spain's CN Sabadell, won the first edition of the newly renamed LEN Euro Cup, a competition that the club already won twice in 2005 and 2011 when it was still called LEN Trophy; on all three occasions Savona earned the right to contest the LEN Super Cup, but never managed to achieve the trophy, being defeated twice by Italy's fellow sides CN Posillipo and Pro Recco and once by Serbia's VK Partizan. The best performance in the major European cup came in the 1991–92 season, when Savona reached the Final but lost to Croatia's Jadran Split.[4]

Honours

Domestic competitions

  • Serie A1
    • Winners: 3 (1990−91, 1991−92, 2004−05)
    • Runners-up: 5 (1983, 1989−90, 1992−93, 2009−10, 2010−11)
  • Coppa Italia
    • Winners: 3 (1989−90, 1990−91, 1992−93)
    • Runners-up: 7 (1986−87, 2004−05, 2005−06, 2007−08, 2008−09, 2009−10, 2012−13)

European competitions

Recent seasons

SeasonLeagueCoppa ItaliaInternational
Division Rank Post season Stage Rank Cup Stage
2010–11 Serie A1 2nd PO: Final QR2 — LEN Euroleague QR2
LEN Trophy Winner
2011–12 Serie A1 4th PO: Semifinals QR2 — LEN Champions League QR2
LEN Euro Cup Winner
2012–13 Serie A1 6th PO: Quarterfinals F4: Final 2nd LEN Euro Cup Semifinals
2013–14 Serie A1 4th PO: Semifinals QR2 — —
2014–15 Serie A1 8th PO: Quarterfinals QR2 — LEN Euro Cup Quarterfinals
2015–16 Serie A1 6th F6: Quarterfinals Not qualified —
2016–17 Serie A1 6th F6: Quarterfinals F4: Semifinals 3rd —
2017–18 Serie A1 5th F6: Quarterfinals QR2 — —
2018–19 Serie A1 9th — QR — LEN Euro Cup QR1
2019–20 Serie A1 Not qualified —

PO: Play-offs; QR: Qualification round; F6: Final 6; F4: Final 4.

Current roster

2019−20 season[5]

Player Birth Date Pos.
Italy Jacopo Missiroli (1997-02-07) 7 February 1997GK
Italy Nicolò Da Rold (2002-06-26) 26 June 2002GK
Italy Stefano Morretti (1998-01-15) 15 January 1998GK
Italy Andrea Grossi (2001-02-20) 20 February 2001DF
Italy Federico Piombo (1998-09-01) 1 September 1998DF
Italy Lorenzo Bianco (1995-04-18) 18 April 1995DF
Italy Pietro Ricci (2002-07-18) 18 July 2002DF
Italy Alessio Caldieri (2002-02-12) 12 February 2002FP
Italy Andrea Patchaliev (2002-05-31) 31 May 2002FP
Player Birth Date Pos.
Italy Eduardo Campopiano (1997-04-08) 8 April 1997FP
Italy Filippo Taramasco (2001-06-29) 29 June 2001FP
Italy Giorgio Boggiano (2002-04-24) 24 April 2002FP
Spain Guillermo Molina (1984-03-16) 16 March 1984CB
Montenegro Nebojša Vuškovič (2000-01-21) 21 January 2000D
Italy Valerio Rizzo (1984-09-21) 21 September 1984CF
Italy Ettore Novara (1999-10-20) 20 October 1999CB
Italy Simone Bertino (2002-03-13) 13 March 2002CB

Head coach: Alberto Angelini

Notable former players

Synchronised swimming

In addition to the water polo team, Rari Nantes Savona also has a successful synchronised swimming section that was created in 1986 and has become a national top club since 1991 (when it reached the second place at the Italian championship). The team raised several international athletes like Giulia Lapi, multiple European medalist and part of the Italian Olympic team in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The club won 15 synchronised swimming national overall championships.[6][7]

  • Honours:

Italian championships: 15 (1994, 1995, 1996, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

References

  1. 1 2 "Storia" [History]. rarinantes.sv.it (in Italian). Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  2. ↑ Laura Sicco (27 February 2012). "Rari Nantes Savona: Storia di trent'anni in Serie A" [Rari Nantes Savona: History of thirty years in Seria A]. svsport.it (in Italian). Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  3. ↑ "Intitolata a Carlo Zanelli la nuova piscina in Corso Colombo" [The new swimming pool in Corso Colombo named after Carlo Zanelli]. comune.savona.it (in Italian). Comune di Savona. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "Palmarès" [List of Honours]. rarinantes.sv.it (in Italian). Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  5. ↑ "Guida ai campionati di pallanuoto 2019–2020" [2019–2020 Serie A1 Water Polo Championships' Guide]. federnuoto.it (in Italian). Federazione Italiana Nuoto. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  6. ↑ "Sincro – Storia" [Synchronised swimming–History]. rarinantes.sv.it (in Italian). Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  7. ↑ "Sincro. Risultati e classifiche" [Synchronised Swimming. Results and Rankings]. federnuoto.it (in Italian). Retrieved 19 February 2020.
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