On Sunday the Italian athlete Yeman Crippa won the gold medal in the half marathon (the one run over a distance of 21 kilometres) at the European Athletics Championships in Rome, finishing ahead of his compatriot Pietro Riva, who obtained silver. In the same discipline, Italy also won gold in the team classification, adding the results of Crippa, Riva and Pasquale Selvarolo, who finished sixth.
Yeman and Crippa’s medals follow a historic day for Italian sport: on Saturday three athletes, Marcell Jacobs, Lorenzo Simonelli and Leonardo Fabbri, had in fact won the gold medal in their respective disciplines, and two silvers and a bronze had also been won .
Jacobs had won the hundred metres, one of the most anticipated events, in 10.02 seconds, followed by compatriot Chituru Ali (10.05 seconds), who had won the silver medal.
Lorenzo Simonelli and Leonardo Fabbri also won gold on Saturday: the former in the 110 meter hurdles, finishing with a time of 13.05 seconds and setting the new Italian record, the latter in the shot put, with a measurement of 22, 45 metres, improving the previous record (22.34 metres) with which he won silver at the 2023 World Championships in Hungary. Mattia Furlani had instead won the silver medal in the long jump, while Francesco Fortunato had obtained the bronze in the men’s 20 kilometer walk.
The golds of Jacobs, Simonelli and Fabbri are added to those of the middle distance runner Nadia Battocletti and the walker Antonella Palmisano, who on Friday had won gold respectively in the 5000 meters and 20 kilometers walk. In this last race, Valentina Trapletti had won the silver medal. Also on Friday Luca Sito, Anna Polinari, Edoardo Scotti and Alice Mangione had obtained an unexpected silver in the mixed relay.
With 7 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze, Italy is currently in first place in the medal table of the European Championships, which will end on 12 June.
