Having sobered up from a memorable European Championship in Rome, the journey towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games starts again tomorrow for some of the big names in Italian athletics. Turku meetingin Finland, for a new direct confrontation between Marcell Jacobs and Chituru Ali in the 100 after the historic double in the continental event.
The top two finishers from the latest European Championships show up at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku with the best seasonal registration times, 10.02 and 10.05 respectively, but it won’t be easy to get the better of the Canadian phenomenon Andre De Grasse (10.10 in the season, 9.89 personal), in addition to the Ghanaian Benjamin Azamati (10.21 in 2024, 9.90 PB) and the emerging Swede Henrik Larsson (10.08 this year).
Both Jacobs and Ali want to further improve compared to Rome in chronometric terms, trying to finally get below 10 seconds (Olympic minimum) to find encouraging answers towards Paris 2024. In Finland we will also see in action another fresh Italian European Champion in Sara Fantiniready to face one of the strongest hammer throwers in the world, the Canadian Camryn Rogers (reigning world championship gold, already in the season at 77.76).
The Emilian, fresh from the 74.18 that gave her the continental title, will also meet the Polish world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk. Also present were the Finns Silja Kosonen and Krista Tervo. Gold stage of the Continental Tour in which they will also compete for the blue colors Osama Zoghlami and Yassin Bouih in the 3000 hedges, Linda Olivieri in the 400 hurdles, Elisa Molinarolo in the auction e Dariya Derkach in the triple.
