Roundup of the latest news
2012-01-07
Fabio Terrone
Francesca Segat retires, Pellegrini has new coach, Mellouli voted best sportsperson in the Maghreb, LEN Open water calendar

Italy: butterfly specialist Francesca Segat is to retire from swimming but plans to stay in the sport.
The highpoint of her career came in 2006, with a silver medal in the 200m butterfly at the LC Europeans in Budapest. Two years later she won gold in the 200 individual medley in a European record time of 2:07.03 at the SC Europeans in Rijeka. She also won 48 Italian titles and set 27 national records.

Pellegrini shares Magnini coach. Pellegrini split with her former coach Federico Bonifacenti two months ago then Swimming Italia confirmed that she would now be training with Claudio Rossetto as she prepares for the Olympics in London this summer.

Africa: Tunisia's California-based Olympic and world short-course champion Oussama Mellouli has been voted the best sportsperson in the Maghreb in 2011 after consideration by 27 newspapers in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Mauritania. The Dave-Salo coached Olympic 1500m free champion finished his 2011 season with 15 medals while racing injured at the Pan Arab Games in Doha in Qatar, his efforts ensuring that Tunisia was the top Arab country at the event.

Open water: LEN announced that the 2012 European championships will be held in Piombino, Italy (Livorno province), September 12-16.
The european junior championships will be hel in Koaceli, Turkey, July 13-15.