The Italians at the 1937 European Championships

The 15 August 1937 at Bosbaan: the winning Italian eight at the prize dock. Alberto Bonciani, Ottorino Quaglierini, Enzo Bartolini, Dante Sechhi, Mario Checcacci, Giovanni Persico, Oreste Grossi, Enrico Garzelli (stroke), Cesare Milani (cox). Garzelli, the stroke, is looking away from the camera while the crew is doing the fascist salute.

On 8 November, HTBS posted an entry about the Italian oarsman Francesco ‘Checchin’ Pittaluga (on the right), who in October celebrated his 100th birthday. ‘Checchin’ is the last surviving of the oarsmen who competed at the Berlin Games in 1936 – his coxless four took a fourth place. He took a silver medal at the 1938 European Championships in the coxless four in Milan. One source that I found also claimed that he rowed in the coxed four that took a bronze at the 1937 European Championships which were held at Bosbaan, Amsterdam. I have had a hard time establishing if this was true as old result lists normally only have the names of the winners.

Then the other day I received an interesting e-mail from Johan ten Berg, a Dutch rowing historian, who has come to HTBS's help several times before. In his e-mail Johan wrote that he had published the above photograph of the Italian eight, who became European champions in 1937, in the Dutch rowing magazine Roeien. In a Dutch newspaper (see below), Johan had found that ‘Checchin’ had been called in from Italy to row in the bow seat in the coxed four when the original bow man, Milan Bussani, had had an accident after a training outing on Bosbaan, crushing his middle finger. The Italian crew crossed the finish line as the third boat, claiming the bronze medal – on the top of the page in the newspaper from 16 August, 1937, is a picture from the coxed fours race, showing ‘Checchin’ in the bow seat.

(Click on the image above to enlarge it!)

Many thanks to Johan for sharing the information about the 1937 European Championships in Amsterdam.

Is the Mystery Man the Champion Sculler Guiseppe Sinigaglia?

A photo from the 1912 Holland Beker, which was won by Bernhard von Gaza, who is standing behind the table with the cups, wearing a hat and a victory sash. Johan ten Berg writes that ‘the little man seen on the right next to von Gaza is Gerhard Nunninghof, Kölner Club für Wassersport. Nunninghof's partner in the double scull, Paul Rosskath, is further to the right with his hands in his pockets. I suspect that the man between the two women on the right might be Georg Voth, Rostocker Ruder Club, Rostock’. The 'mystery' person in this picture is the man second on the left from von Gaza. Is this the Italian renown sculler Guiseppe Sinigaglia, the 1911 two-time European champion and later the winner of the Diamonds? (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Editor Johan ten Berg of the Netherlands, one of HTBS many friends, sent an e-mail with an interesting photograph from the 1912 Holland Beker, which was won by the German sculler Bernhard von Gaza (who HTBS has written about before, as an author of rowing books and as the winner of the 1911 Holland Beker, where the runner-up was the Cambridge sculler Eric Fairbairn).

The German sculler was killed during the First World War (as was Eric Fairbairn), but ‘in the 1912 picture there is possibly another rower that was killed during the War’, writes Johan. He continues, ‘the man happens to be Guiseppe Sinigaglia (S.C. Lario, Como)’ from Italy. Johan writes that he is not certain, but surfing around on the internet, finding some photographs of the Italian sculler, it might well be him in the picture. Johan writes that Sinigaglia ‘is mentioned as one of the entries [in the 1912 Holland Beker], but as he isn’t mentioned in the results in the newspapers, he may not have started’. In another article it states that Gerhard Nunninghof, Kölner Club für Wassersport, won a heat on walk-over as Sinigaglia did not show up at the start.

Is this Guiseppe Sinigaglia, asks Johan ten Berg?

Maybe a reader in Italy can help us to answer the question if the man in the photograph above is the famous Italian sculler Sinigaglia?

Guiseppe Sinigaglia might not have won the Holland Beker, but he was a very successful oarsman. In his hometown of Como, he became the 1911 European Champion first in the double scull (with Teodore Mariani) and then in the single scull, where he was described as ‘outstanding elegant’ and ‘much admired, even by his opponents’. Sinigaglia did not compete at the Olympic rowing regatta in Stockholm in July 1912, but a month later, he did race in the single scull at the European Championships in Geneva, coming second after the Belgian sculler Polydore Veirman, who had taken the Olympic silver medal in the Swedish capital, being beaten by the Scotsman Wally Kinnear. Veirman was a very good all-round oarsman who had become European champion already in 1901 in the eight.

The 1913 European Championships were held on Veirman’s homewater in Ghent. The single scull final proved to be a total fiasco: the umpire stopped the race twice and ordered two re-starts. In the end he disqualified Sinigaglia and the French sculler Peresselenzeff (of Russian origin), and as Veirman capsized, the victory went to the only sculler still afloat, Frederich Graf, the first German to become European champion. It has to be mentioned, though, that Graf, who was self-taught and never had a trainer or coach during his sculling career, had been in the lead throughout all three starts. The First World War put a stop to the 1914 European Championships, but the Italian sculler took the Diamond Challenge Cup at Henley that year, beating C.M. Stuart of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Wanting to serve his country, Sinigaglia signed up in the Royal Italian Army, where he in 1916 advanced to the rank of lieutenant. On 9 August 1916, he led his men in a charge at Monte San Michele. At the attack Sinigaglia was hit by Austrian fire and, badly wounded, he died the following day, 32 years old. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor, and later the stadium in Como was named after him, Stadio Giuseppe Sinigalia.

Read more about Giuseppe Sinigalia on Wikipedia, in Italian or in English.

In a newspaper on 18 February, 1915, was a report that von Gaza had been injured in his left arm by a grenade. A year later, in March 1916, the German sculler was awarded the Iron Cross. On 19 December the same year, a newspaper reported that von Gaza had died on the western front a few days earlier.

Many thanks to Johan ten Berg for sending the photographs and giving information about Sinigalia.