Extraordinary first half by Luca Sito who drags the Azzurri to a historic result. Fabbri and Weir in the weight final
Great feat by the Italian relay team 4×400 mixed in the final of European Championships of Rome, with an exceptional first fraction of Luca Sito who passes the baton in first position to Anna Polinari, who is then overtaken by two opponents to launch in third place Edoardo Scotti which maintains the position and with Alice Mangione who, in the last 50 meters, gained a position, even resisting Femke Bol’s Holland, and winning the silver medal.
In the match won by Ireland with 3’09″92, the Italian team achieved the national record with 3’10″69, while the Netherlands finished with 3’10″73.
THE STATEMENTS OF THE ITALIAN PROTAGONISTS
Site: “I am super satisfied, these are special days for me, they are my first European Championships but they are also European Championships in Rome and they have even greater value. I arrived in the national team this year, a big thank you also goes to my teammates, who welcomed me into the blue like big brothers.”
Polinari: “I was fine, we wanted to dream big and we dreamed big. Doing the math, we had assumed that we would have a time under 3:12 and we did more than a second better.”
Scotti: “This is a starting point, I couldn’t miss it here: the relay is my home, the Olympic Stadium is the home of Italian athletics”.
Glutton: “I still struggle to believe it: we believed it, but we knew it was difficult. We gave everything and maybe even more.”
Leonardo Fabbrithe Italian record holder in the shot put after having erased Alessandro Andrei’s historic previous record of 1987 with 22.95, gets through to tomorrow evening’s final with a first throw of 21.10, which makes him consume little energy, despite giving him the best measure among participants.
Together with him, his friend and training partner also passes to the final act with the last useful measurement of 19.71 Zane Weir, European indoor champion in Istanbul 2023 but held back recently by a series of ankle problems, while the other Italian Lorenzo Del Gatto was eliminated with 18.83.
FABBRI’S STATEMENTS
“I enjoyed experiencing the atmosphere here at the Olimpico and throwing during the finish of the women’s march. 21.10 doesn’t satisfy me, I was coming off a ‘terrible’ warm-up, but tomorrow we’ll have fun. I’m happy that Zane came in: I suffered with him during this race, he’s a champion with a capital ‘C’ for how he embraced this challenge despite the injury he had.”
WEIR’S WORDS
“I’ve come from a very difficult four weeks, until 10 days ago I was still moving around on crutches, I’m happy to be here, to be able to compete in the final and to do it with a great athlete and a great person like Leonardo”.
In the preliminary round of the men’s 100 metres, both Matteo Melluzzo ran in 10″21 and Roberto Rigali with 10″34, while in the qualifications of the women’s high, Elena Vallortigara, bronze at the Eugene 2022 world championships, failed to reach the final. which stops at 1.85 as well as Aurora Vicini which does not go beyond 1.81.
