Florence, 10 June 2024 – “Many have told me that finally there is someone in Florence who wins in Europe, given that Fiorentina can’t do it.” Jokes Leonardo Fabbri, a huge Viola fan and recent winner of the European Athletics Championships in shot put with two throws over 22 and the winning one at 22.45. Just to clarify, the second is the Croatian Mihaljevic, silver at 21.20.
A business card for “Fabbrino” towards the Paris Olympics after having snatched the Italian record with 22.95 from Alessandro Andrei (another Florentine). So-so start of the race with 20.42, then the gold medal crescendo.
What did you think when you entered the stage on Saturday evening? Did you expect this result?
“I definitely didn’t want to just win, but to make throws beyond 22.”
How did you handle the tension?
“I’m happy because I managed it well, I liked it because I was able to recover from a difficult moment, between heat and cramps, but there’s still room for improvement.”
This European gold comes after an extraordinary May, with the five best European performances of the season with a win throw average of 22.74.
“It certainly pays off to be consistent in training and in competitions, consistently throwing over 22 metres.”
Now? Challenge the Americans at the Olympics?
“At the moment they are the strongest, but I have already beaten someone like Kovacs (personal best of 23.23, ed.). And continuing to throw consistently above 22 could also create problems for Krouser (Olympic champion and world record holder with 23.56, ed.) We need to see what level of preparation they are at, we haven’t competed together yet, of course we have to do everything we can to beat them.”
Returning to the European Championships, the match was dominated, but how much emotion was there for the roar of the public at the end of the throwing rounds?
“It was wonderful, something like this had never happened to me before. I finally won something. It was exciting.”
Always with a bit of viola on the stage…
“Yes I had purple ribbons for my fingers, in the end someone gave me a scarf, in the stands there were lots of purple flags.”
