07 Dec 2011
Italy appoints new technical director
By Melissa Bray
The elite rowers and coaches of the Italian military had a strong influence on the decision by the Italian Rowing Federation not to renew de Capua’s contract. This came after a fax was sent to the president of the Italian Rowing Federation, Renato Nicetto, by four military groups of which many of Italy’s top rowers train and work under.
Italian Rowing Federation council members Fabrizio Ravasi and Dario Crozzoli, as quoted on Italian rowing’s independent website, canottaggiovero.com, confirmed that the fax was true.
Ravasi stated, “In this fax it was reported the doubts of some coaches from four military clubs concerning the technical management by the director (de Capua). In it (the fax), it said that coaches, athletes and club leaders don’t want to cooperate with the technical director any more.”
When the time came for the Italian Rowing Federation to decide on the continuation of de Capua, Nicetto presented the fax and said that he did not want to go against the army and thus choosing to vote against de Capua’s continuation.
De Capua became technical director in 2005 when the federation decided to replace longstanding technical director of 11 years, Giuseppe La Mura, following the Italian performance at the Athens Olympics. When de Capua took up the position he declared that he was planning on making changes.
“I’m introducing a different training programme, a different rowing technique and different testing,” said de Capua at the time.
New technical director Coppola, 54, comes to the position after holding a role inside the national team since 1993. During that time Coppola has helped train many top athletes including the men’s four at the 1994 and 1995 World Championships. He also trained the men’s four (Carlo Mornati, Lorenzo Carboncini, Riccardo Dei Rossi and Valtar Molea) that won silver at the Sydney Olympics.Coppola currently holds the position as head club coach in his home town of Naples, a position he has held since 1980.
Coppola has also coached at the junior and under 23 level and is a former accomplished rower himself having rowed under La Mura in the late 1960s winning the Italian Championships with Giuseppe Abbagnale in 1977.