Alessandro Sibilio (400 hurdles), Lorenzo Simonelli (110 hurdles), Zaynab Dosso (200 meters and 4×100), Ayomide Folorunso (400 and 4×400), Simone Barontini (400), Nadia Battocletti (5000), Valentina Trapletti (20 km walk) and Leonardo Fabbri (shot put). So let’s start from here: these are the certain names of the athletes (and related races) that we saw at the Montagna sports center and who will be at the Paris Olympics from July 26 to August 11. But it certainly doesn’t end here, because many others could be there. “Someone, after the trials in La Spezia – explains Stefano Mei, national Fidal president – could be disappointed and have the feeling of having failed, for not being so advanced in the ranking, but everything can be turned upside down right in these days. In my day, when I ran in the 80s, there was the minimum time to reach, now everything is different and calculations will be made. Personally, I would bring everyone who is in a position to come. On the other hand, there are guys who have deserved this consideration after three and a half years in the group. An acknowledgement, not a prize”. So, someone could add, first of all Giada Carmassi, who won the tricolor in the 100 hurdles, but, Fidal let us know, “the exact number is not yet known, but approximately fifty”. A nice stage for everyone, because as Mei adds: “I don’t care that the showcase always features only the usual Jacobs and Tamberis. For example, the big favorite Daisy Osakue, the best of our discus throwers, who misses three throws at Montagna and loses the title: the anger must last half an hour, I told her, but everything must end there. There will be much more important stages, for her and for many others”. In the words of Mayor Pierluigi Peracchini, the satisfaction is tangible. “La Spezia was the capital of Italian athletics and sport for two days,” he said. “An important test that required a high level of preparation and organization, which our employees were able to achieve. From Public Works, which in recent months followed the interventions at Montagna, to the Sports office for the perfect organization, in synergy with Fidal and Atletica Spezia Duferco, as well as Mobility and Security. For La Spezia, sport is a priority, in which we are continuing to invest resources for new facilities and to increase the quality of existing ones, so that more and more people from La Spezia can achieve important results, as well as promoting physical activity. I extend my best wishes to the athletes from La Spezia for their future and to those who participated in the competitions from all over Italy, in the hope that the results obtained in La Spezia are a good omen for winning the first prize in the next Olympics.”
Mark Magi
