For the Italian pitcher, the first major trophy of his career in his best season with two other measurements over 22 meters
It was the most discounted Italian gold on the eve, the one in shot putwith Leonardo Fabbri capable of beating a historic national record like that of Andrei in 1987 last May 15th, and of crossing the twenty-two meter mark 12 times in 2024, and tonight the Tuscan thrower confirmed his seasonal dominance at least at continental level by easily winning theEuropean gold with 10.45pm achieved on the fifth attempt, after having secured the victory with 22.12 per second.
FABBRI’S STATEMENTS
“I finally won something after the silvers and bronzes! In the warm-up I had a bit of cramps, the test throws weren’t good, but in the race I did simple things and had fun. The goal is to fight with the Americans and to beat the Americans I had to win this European Championship like I won it tonight, even if I hoped to do more.”
FABBRI’S COMPETITIVE HISTORY
Born in Bagno a Ripoli in the province of Florence on 15 April 1997, he started athletics at the age of six and, after trying a bit of everything, his imposing structure directed him towards throwing starting from the 2011 season, winning in the In 2012 he won the shot put at the cadet tricolors and, in 2013, on his debut among the under 18s he immediately managed to get on an international podium, with bronze in the Eyof, before reaching the final in the Youth Olympic Games. From the end of 2016 he began to be periodically followed in rallies by the former specialist Paolo Dal Soglio, and was then trained full-time by him from October 2018. In January 2018 he achieved the best Italian under 23 weight performance
indoor with 19.95 and in July the outdoor one with 20.07. He reached 20.69 in the 2019 indoor season, then outdoors after the silver at the under 23 European Championships he almost reached 21 meters with 20.99, the longest throw by an Italian player since 1997. In 2020 another leap of quality with 21.59 indoors, which was an Italian record in the hall, and 21.99 at the Padua Championships: best Italian measurement since 1987 and second in the world of the year. After a problematic 2022 also due to the consequences suffered for having significantly contracted Covid in January, in 2023 he returned to increasing his indoor staff with 21.60 and won at the Golden Gala in his native Florence before his exploit at the World Championships in Budapest where he took silver with 22.34. He improved again in 2024 with 22.37 in Liévin, an Italian indoor record and second in Europe as well as sixth in the world indoors, a prelude to third place at the Indoor World Championships in Glasgow. Outdoors he grew further to 22.95 in Savona to surpass the historic national record of Alessandro Andrei after 37 years, second in Europe and fifth in the world of all times, with five races above 22.40 in the month of May.
