The Revenant. From the abyss of a terrible 20.72 held last May 18th at the Stadio dei Marmi to the glories of a splendid 8.14pm clocked this evening at the Olympic Stadiumalways in Rome. Philip Tortuwelcome back, from the height of an always moving talent and a heart full of passion that usually always makes Italians gasp.
The hero of the 4×100 at the Olympics of Tokyo 2020 re-emerged from a moment of difficulty, put an end to the disappointing seasonal debut and beat a thunderous blow in the 200 meters semi-final at the European Championships 2024 in athletics, making it clear that he can clearly aspire to a medal. When he runs like this, as he knows how to do, it is not easy to contain the first Italian capable of going below the ten-second barrier on the straight.
The Lombard sprinter fired up the crowd, took advantage of 0.9 m/s of favorable wind and signed the third time of his career, four cents away from the personal mark, raced two years ago at the World Championships in Eugene (when it was left out of the final due to a matter of thousandths). The 25-year-old immediately started strong in lane 8, went to catch the Israeli Blessing Afrifah and set a very wide-ranging curve, appearing bold on the straight and further relaunching the pace, before look around and get up in the end.
Test of personality and time of depth which gives us hope in view of tomorrow’s final, where a medal will undoubtedly be played out after the continental bronze won two years ago in Monaco. Filippo Tortu was promoted with the best time of the round, well ahead of the Frenchman Pablo Mateo (20.34 in the second semi-final, 1.2 m/s of breeze at the back) and the German Joshua Hartmann (20.38 in the first series, 0.8 m/s of tailwind).
Fausto Desalu offered glimpses of his best days and deserved to qualify for the final. The 4×100 Olympic Champion came out of the starting blocks in a lively manner in the second semi-final (reaction time of 0.161) and ran a good first part of the race, making a good turn and taking the lead on the final straight. In the last thirty meters the Italian got a little stuck and was immediately overtaken by the Frenchman Pablo Mateo, closing second place with a time of 20.39 (seasonal improvement of one second) behind the transalpine and ahead of the Swiss William Reais (20.51).
Diego Pettorossi he finished in fifth place in the first semi-final with a time of 20.88, far from the German Joshua Hartmann (20.38) and the Swiss Timothé Mumenthaler (20.38), who qualified in the final round and who widely distanced the British Jona Efoloko (20.73 ).
