Two days ago the gold medal of Tokyo Olympian Vito Dell’Aquila, today the last races of the European Taekwondo Championships in Belgrade. with four Italians in contention but no podium. A good performance from Giada Al Halwani, already a European bronze medalist in 2022. The Italian won against the Norwegian Karoline Gjelsvik in the round of 32 and then overcame the Spanish Laura Rodriguez in the round of 16. But then her path was interrupted in the quarter-finals against the Hungarian Luana Marton, number three seed.
Unlucky was Angelo Mangione, Junior world champion, who was at the center of discussions, since after having knocked out the Cypriot Evangelos Charalambou during the third round, he was disqualified for excessive celebration towards his opponent. This is a situation not permitted by the rules of Taekwondo.
The two new entries in the Italian team, Mattia Molin (+87kg) and Luna De Matteo (-62kg), both surprised positively, winning their respective round of 32 finals. The Azzurri were then eliminated in the round of 16 respectively by Emre Kutalmis Atesli, number two on the scoreboard, and Kimia Alizadeh Zenoozi.
Having concluded the European event, the attention of Italian taekwondo now shifts towards the Paris Olympics. “When you return from a European Championship with a gold medal – the words of the technical director of the national team, Claudio Nolano – you must be satisfied. Vito Dell’Aquila’s victory represented a promising start, however, there remains the regret of not having managed to materialize the results of other athletes, including young people, with the podium. We start again from this European Championship with determination and confidence in our abilities. We are aware of the technical errors, but we do not doubt their potential So we keep our concentration high and look forward to the next Games with confidence.”
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