Filippo Tortu, Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs and Matteo Meluzzo celebrate the gold victory at the European Athletics Championships
Great celebration for Italian athletics on the last day of the European Championships.
There 4×100 light blue, composed by Matteo Meluzzo, Marcell Jacobs, Lorenzo Patta and Filippo Tortu won the gold medal ahead of Holland and Germany.
Larissa Iapichino won the silver medal in women’s long jump26 years after the same medal won by her mother, Fiona May, also a champion in the long jump.
Pietro Arese won bronze in the 1,500 meters.
The European Athletics Championships thus end with Italy tops the medal table: 24 podiums in total, of which 11 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze. The Head of State was once again present in the gallery, Sergio Mattarellawho celebrated winning gold in the 4×100.
«We are living a dream that not even we thought could be so big. Congratulations to all Italian athletics. It was said that President Stefano Mei was a lucky president, but he is certainly also a good president because these results do not come alone”, said the president of CONI, Giovanni Malagò. «Tokyo’s gold medal haul is difficult to repeat, but the number of podiums in Paris for athletics could even be doubled. If athletics wins, then all of Italian sport will be positively affected.”
Larissa Iapichino, Malaika Mihambo Agate de Sousa celebrate after the women’s long jump competition – Reuters
Special evening for Iapichino, who came second in the long jump after the German Mihambo (the bronze medal went to the Portuguese De Sousa): it was in fact 22 August 1998 when in Budapest Fiona May, her mother, came second, at always behind a German woman, in that case Heike Drechsler. In the history of Italian athletics, Iapichino’s silver is the third medal won in the women’s long distance discipline at the European Championships: in 1994 in Helsinki May had won bronze.
«I managed to bring out the best in me, this is a beautiful silver medal at home – the immediate comment after winning the silver medal – I was able to find myself again and I didn’t disappoint the people who were here with me».
Here is the final medal table of the European Athletics Championships:
1) Italy 11 gold, 9 silver, 4 bronze
2) France 4, 5, 7
3) Great Britain 4, 4, 5
4) Norway 4, 2, 1
5) Switzerland 4, 1, 4
6) Netherlands 3, 4, 5
7) Belgium 3, 1, 2
8) Spain 2, 3, 3
9) Poland 2, 2, 2
10) Ireland 2, 2, 0
