Athletics, European teams, Sibilio show in the 400 hs, Italy first

From our correspondent Andrea Buongiovanni

@abuongi

June 24th
– CHORZOW (Pol)

In the name of Alessandro Sibilio: the 24-year-old Neapolitan dominates the 400m hurdles with a technical performance of absolute depth and launches Italy towards a historic victory in the European team championships. The Azzurri, after the second of three matchdays, have a margin on the most immediate pursuer, the hosts Poland, of 35.5 points. A huge amount. Thanks to a very compact national team which, after Friday’s poker successes, puts in a series of “podium” placements (6 out of 13 races) which keeps the others far, far away. Now – barring sensational surprises – with Italy on another planet and with points such as Tortu, Crippa, Tamberi, Weir and Iapichino, more than the one at the top, the fight for second place will be exciting: Poland and Germany are divided by two points… Net of the (many) absences of others and the fact that at global level there are other values ​​at stake, applause right now to the president Stefano Mei and to the director Antonio La Torre: the wave of the Tokyo Games continues .

Without obstacles

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Just take Sibilio: the financier, only in the unforgettable Olympic semi-final, went faster than he does in Chorzow. The blue, with disarming ease of action and absolute mastery, wins in 48”14, second time of his career, 21/100 from the personal best achieved in Japan and 9 below the season signed two weeks ago in Geneva. What matters most in perspective is that it does so in a prestigious context, taking 32/100 off the record held by His Majesty Karsten Warholm and consolidating third and seventh place in the 2023 European and world list. Gianpaolo Ciappa’s pupil also finds way to complain: “I made a serious mistake in the rhythm – he explains – caught up in the heat I got distracted and I kept the thirteen steps between one obstacle and another up to the seventh, instead of up to the sixth. My expectations are very high, I hope at the World Cup in Budapest to celebrate like Napoli”. It will be him, with the mixed 4×400, after the fractions of Edo Scotti and Ayo Folorunso and before that of Alice Mangione, who will close the review in a tricolor key. Then, next Sunday, in the presence of Warholm, the stage of the Diamond League in Stockholm.

What a team

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First we have to celebrate the four second places and the third of this Saturday. Second place in the men’s 4×100 is daring. The novelty Samuele Ceccarelli in the second fraction is not enough: Fausto Desalu gets hurt in the warm-up (a strained adductor, an x-ray for him within 24 hours), replaced in extremis, in the third, by Marco Ricci. The changes – unprecedented and safe – are not super effective. With good sprints, a third place on the track in 38″47 (Patta 10″60, Ceccarelli 9″12, Ricci 9″54, Tortu 9″21), after Germany (38″34) and Great Britain (38″44 ). Insufficient to improve the ranking for qualification for the World Cup in Budapest – hence the disappointment of the protagonists – enough to give the team heavy points. Even one more, after the disqualification of Great Britain… Mattia Furlani, 7.97 in the long run of the Greek Olympian Tentoglou (8.34), the same Folorunso, 54 “79 in the 400 hs, do their part and more (all second) , seasonal at 45/100 from her Italian record and Ottavia Cestonaro, 14.09 in the triple, a guarantee. Applause also to Hassane Fofana, third in the 110 hs in 13”47. Not even the flops of Roberta Bruni in the auction and of the 4×100 women (error in the exchange Dalia Kaddari-Anna Bongiorni) spoil the party. This Italy is stronger than the unexpected.