The Italian middle distance team continues to be in great turmoil and noteworthy performances continue to arrive in the long run towards the European Championships in Rome (7-12 June) and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games (1-11 August). The last acute notes were signed today at Decines meetingnear Lyon, with protagonists Federico Riva and Catalin Tecuceanu.
Let’s start with Riva, who confirms his sparkling form, further improving by 6 tenths his personal best set just four days ago in Huelva in 3:34.35, achieving today’s victory with 3:33.71 (beaten again in the final the French European record holder of the 5 km and 10 km Jimmy Gressier) and becoming above all the third Italian all-time in the 1500 meters.
Better than him only the national record holder Genny Di Napoli (3:32.78 in Rieti in 1990) and Pietro Arese, with 3:33.11 in the 2023 world semifinal in Budapest. With this time, the 23-year-old Roman jumps to the top of the European lists for the year (about a month before the continental event) and comes within a whisker of the 3:33.50 set as the standard for the Olympics.
It also stood out in the transalpine event Tecuceanu, who won on his outdoor season debut in the 800 meters with a time of 1:44.85, extremely close to his personal best of 1:44.79 set last year. The fourth place finisher at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and national indoor record holder also came within just 15 hundredths of the Olympic standard, beating the French Corentin Le Clezio (1:45.24) and the British Elliot Giles (1:45.24) in a very long sprint. .
