It’s still Italy. Another extraordinary double on Sunday morning for the Italian team at the European Athletics Championships: protagonist this time Yeman Crippa who wins the gold medal in the half marathon, ahead of his compatriot Pietro Riva who takes home the silver. Crippa finishes in 1h01’03, while completing the podium is the German Petros who gave the Azzurri a hard time, but in the end he stalled and was unable to even defend second place. Italy also wins the team gold thanks to the placing of the other Italians in the top 10: 6th place for Selvarolo, 8th for Faniel and 10th for Chiappinelli.
Crippa: “It was tough. 99% of the time I don’t do the 10,000”
“Certainly as a half I studied it a little easier, I made a mistake because it was tough and caught me a little unprepared from this point of view – he said Crippa on Sky Sport after winning gold -. There were many athletes who tried to make restarts and I followed, but then I said ‘maybe I made a mistake’ because the group recovered anyway. I did it 3-4 times which then cost me a little, I said to myself ‘should I leave or not?’. Then when in the last km I saw that no one was doing anything I understood that I could play my joker. The 10,000? I rely on my coach, I signed up because if by chance the half marathon went badly, then I would throw myself into that. The half went well, so I think 99% of finishing the European Championship here.” Happy too shore for the silver: “I have to thank Baldini a lot because he puts up with me and the last 8 months have been difficult – he explained -. I believe in him a lot, but when things don’t go very well sometimes there are clashes between the athlete and the coach, even though I trust him blindly. I know I’m a little better on the road and so maybe I too will start a marathon journey. I know I have one of the best guides possible so I thank him, if someone like me managed to get a medal there ‘80% of the credit goes to him: he is a champion also as a coach evidently, not just as an athlete. The final gesture to Petros? It was unintentional and aimed at him, I respect that so much. I immediately told him that I’ll pay for a pizza, he didn’t want to be disrespectful“.
