The end of the season is giving me more and more emotions and satisfactions! After the wonderful expedition in Norway, where I took my first steps on Silence before sending Move Hard, I returned to Italy to take part in the Italian Lead Championships in Arco, Trentino, exactly where I live. The experience was extraordinary, I managed to win the Italian title for the ninth time in my career and doing it on “my” wall was even more beautiful.

The comp was held in the facility where I usually train. This could have been both an advantage because I was playing at home, in a familiar context, but also a disadvantage for the greater pressures. I was good at not getting caught up in tension, indeed I faced the race with a clear mind and without excessive expectations on myself.

This year, in fact, I did not collect the results I expected in competitions during the World Cup and the European Championships, so I did not expect anything also from this championship. Also, as you know I was in Flatanger until a couple of weeks before the Italian Championships, so I arrived at the appointment trained less than usual for a competition on artificial wall. I had just enough time to train a little bit and dedicate myself to “Pure dreaming plus”, another 9a route that I sent here in Arco shortly after my return.

But not only that, another Italian climber, Filip Schenk, had done better than me in this 2022, so for once I was not the great favourite for the title, but I played it on a par with a worthy opponent. Probably these aspects also helped to melt me, to make me live the experience without pressure and expectations, and to make a series of almost perfect climbs in which I also had fun.

Only in the semi-finals I risked to fall on a hard move about halfway, but the final went perfectly smooth and so here I am with my ninth Lead title: from 2012 to 2022 I always won, except in 2016 and 2019 when I finished second. This year I missed a prestigious result in comps, after the enormous satisfactions on rock, and finally it arrived right in Arco! I am happy for me and also for my sister Claudia, very good to finish second in the women’s category after having recovered from an injury: for her it is a great autumn, given that she has just sent TCT (her first 9a) in Piemonte (Italy).

This was the last competitive commitment of 2022, now I will return to dedicate myself to rock projects. Between the end of October and the beginning of November I will go with my girlfriend Sara to the United States, to Bishop in California, on a journey halfway between vacation and climbing. Then I will put my hands again on Excalibur, a route that I have not yet freed and that I am very keen to complete… We will update soon!