Benetton Rugby: official renewal of Fabio Ongaro

Fundamental renewal in Benetton Rugby’s coaching staff. The green-and-white franchise has announced the extension of Fabio Ongaro until June 30, 2026. The former rugby player will continue as the Lions’ scrum coach.

Born in Venice on Sept. 23, 1977, Fabio Ongaro began playing rugby in Casale, a team with which he made his A2 debut in 1994. His professional career began with Benetton Rugby, where he played from 1998 to 2006, winning the Scudetto, an Italian Cup and an Italian Super Cup five times. He canò boast of being part of the Club of 100, with 151 appearances packed into the green-and-white jersey. He then embarked on foreign experience by moving to the Saracens with whom he played for four seasons in the English Premiership. When the experience overseas ended, Ongaro è returned to Italy wearing the Aironi jersey from 2010 to 2012.

Fabio Ongaro in his career has been a permanent member of the Italian national team since 2000. Under Kirwan’s management, Ongaro participated in the 2003 Six Nations and the World Cup of the same year playing the role of hooker. Subsequently, Fabio took part in all Six Nations until 2012 and in the World Cup in 2007 and 2011, thus collecting 81 appearances and 25 points in the Azzurri.

In the summer of 2012, after the second year of his contract with Aironi, Fabio è became team manager of Zebre, a position he held until September 2014. From 2014 to 2016 he was part of the Japanese national team staff led by Eddie Jones for two summers, devoting himself to the scrum. Since the summer of 2016 è member of the Benetton Rugby technical leadership, directing the forwards and scrum. In these eight Treviso years he has shown excellent coaching skills and has been one of the important elements of the Lions’ ride through all the victorious stages of recent history.

In 2019 when the green-and-whites reached the Guinness PRO14 Final Series, in 2021 when è the Rainbow Cup was won, in 2023 when the Lions reached the Challenge Cup semifinals, and in 2024 when coach Marco Bortolami’s troop won the URC playoffs for the first time.

“I am happy to extend my contract for two more sports seasons and thank the club for the show of trust. We embarked on this path now 8 years ago, demonstrating steady growth. And it is with this awareness that we look to the future, certain that it will be necessary to continue working to improve and reach higher and higher standards” these are the words of Fabio Ongaro after the official announcement of the extension.

“Satisfied with what we have done over the years, we are happy to confirm Fabio at the helm of our scrum for the next two years. This renewal reflects our confidence in his work and the willà to continue with continuityà on the path of growth undertaken to make this decisive phase of the game one of our strengths” said general manager Antonio Pavanello.

The words of Luca Banchi

It ended with a defeat the last pre-season friendly for Virtus Bologna. The Black Vu, in the tournament in Crete, were defeated by Ettore Messina’s Olimpia Milano with a score of 73-62. At the microphones of the Greek broadcaster “Cosmote TV”, the head coach of the Felsinei Luca Banchi, in addition to analyzing the knockout of his boys, also spent words of praise towards the meneghini.

“It was important to be here to play games at this level with newcomers. We spent a lot against Olympiacos and so we struggled to maintain the same level against Olimpia as well. Milan è impressive, has built a roster that has all the cards to play for the Euroleague Final Four. We, on the other hand, still have to grow, especially in offense. It’s going to be a very complicated preseason for us, because we had to deal with numerous absences” began the head coach of the Felsinei.

“We came to this tournament without ever having the full roster, with players who played with the team for the first time only in these last few outings. We entered the game quite well, Milan already plays a very fluid basketball and we struggled to keep up with their pace. We tried to stay in touch for the whole 40′ and in the last minutes the newcomers showed some good things and that gives me hope for the future. I am convinced that this team has a lot of room for improvement” added Luca Banchi.

Olimpia Milano and Virtus Bologna will return to the court on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024 against Reyer Venezia and GeVi Napoli, respectively, for challenges valid for the Italian Supercoppa semifinals.

Dolomiti Superski celebrates fifty’years

The Val di Fiemme Obereggen cable car consortium celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dolomiti Superski by honoring founders Elio Polo, Italo Craffonara and Georg Weissensteiner at the headquarters of the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme in Cavalese.

The Val di Fiemme – Obereggen consortium looked back on 48 years of life within the Dolomiti Superski’universe. The Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme è has been a key player in the birth and strengthening of the Val di Fiemme – Obereggen consortium, in addition to owning much of the land that houses slopes and lifts. Present were the Scario of the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme Dr. Mauro Gilmozzi; the president of the consortium Val di Fiemme – Obereggen Siegfried Pichler, the mayors of the valleys involved, Marco Larger president of the Conference of Mayors of the Fiemme Valley, Bernard Daum Mayor of Nova Ponente, presidents of the Apt Paolo Gilmozzi for Fiemme-Cembra and Erich Thaler for Val d’Ega / Eggental, friends and guests.

Icon of the celebration è was once again the work “Enrosadira” that Bellunese artist Daniele Basso created, with the twelve three-dimensional triangles in polished steel that symbolize the’union and cooperation of the as many valleys that in these 50 years have allowed the birth and growth of Dolomiti Superski, one of the most important ski consortium in the world.

“We are celebrating an important anniversary” explained Siegfried Pichler, president of the Consorzio Impianti Val di Fiemme – Obereggen “a moment that represents a great milestone but at the same time offers us an’opportunityà to reflect on the values and principles that have guided us since our founding. The pioneers who launched this idea 50 years ago had a dream, a vision that è became reality. Today we can proudly say that è much more has been achieved than we could have imagined then.  But as we know, the journey does not end there. The world around us is changing and we are facing new challenges and our districts are called to further development, in order to maintain their competitiveness, while fully respecting the’environment and nature, which have always been our primary asset”.

President Pichler honored the founding members: Georg Weissensteiner, Italo Craffonara and Elio Polo, pivots for the birth in the ‘70s of the ski resort. who received from Pichler’s hands a special mention, in thanks for their work. Also honored was Pichler himself, who has led the Val di Fiemme – Obereggen consortium since 1979. Also awarded from the hands of Giulio Misconel Vice President of the Consortium and Daniele Dezulian Representative of Dolomiti Superski were engineer Piero Nicolussi, for more than 40 years technical manager of the ski lifts, secretary Michele Tonini, Donatella Gabrielli referent for the Pampeago issuing center, Flavio Delvai, first secretary of the consortium as well asé creator of the first promotion initiatives, Piero De Godenz and Silvano Seber for their invaluable work and commitment in the growth and management of Itap Pampeago, Funivie Alpe Cermis.