ROME. Yeman Crippa, European gold. Again. This time in a half marathon in Rome dominated by a great, great athlete. Record of the European championships and message to all opponents in view of Paris, where Yeam will run the Olympic marathon. Race in control and finish on the wings of enthusiasm, complete with a smile of joy in the final straight.
Spectacular race also for the context, with the athletes running through the streets of a sunless but still glitteringly beautiful Rome, until the arrival in the Olympic stadium: an Italian celebration completed by Pietro Riva’s silver, with the German in third place Petros.
Around the 15 kilometer mark, after two thirds of the race spent in substantial waiting with a leading group of twenty units, comes the decisive attack triggered by the Israeli Teferi: three Italians remain in the lead, but the pace increases and the group of the best tapers to a dozen athletes. It’s time for Yeman’s thrust: the class of ’96 puts the arrow and “tears”, and only the 2 Germans remain with him. But unable to detach them, Crippa lowers the engine speed and waits for the final sprint. And at the finish line there are shivers of joy with a phenomenal sprint.
Also thanks to this Sunday morning of joy and success, Italy currently confirms itself in first place in the European Championship medal table: second “Trentino” gold after Nadia Battocletti’s success on Friday evening.
Between Monday and Tuesday it will be the turn of the third Trentino in action, Lorenzo Naidon (Fiamme Gialle) involved in the various challenges of the decathlon and returning after the injury that forced him to stop in the winter: good signs have arrived in the recent races in Bolzano, but his participation in Rome was anything but a given.
Battocletti will also return to the track on Tuesday 11 June, at the start of the 10,000 metres, the same distance that Yeman Crippa, reigning European champion over the distance after his triumph in Monaco 2022, but who will compete at the Olympics, should also face on Sunday 12 June, unless there are program changes. in the marathon.
