Tortu, Simonelli and Dosso in Tenerife since the beginning of the year. Furlani in Formia, Iapichino starts again from Ancona
The work plans of the Italian teams for 2025 and the related preparation activities planned by the national technical sector are taking shape. After the early season exploits of Nadia Battocletti and the mixed relay (Arese, Parolini, Vissa, Zenoni) European gold in cross country in Antalya, Turkey, and of Yeman Crippa, silver behind the Norwegian Olympian Ingebrigtsen, there are many big names ready to reach the various rallies to try to repeat the excellent season just ended, with 34 Italians in the world top 20 of their specialty.
in Spain
—
The preferred base remains Tenerife, the largest island of the Canary Islands: Mattia Furlani with his family, Gianmarco Tamberi with his wife Chiara have already been here in the past few weeks (but only on holiday) and the Olympic bronze medalist from triple Andy Diaz with the working group of his coach Fabrizio Donato. From Saturday 4 January, then, it will be the turn of middle-distance runners, hurdlers and sprinters with, among others, Filippo Tortu, Lorenzo Simonelli, Francesco Pernici, Zaynab Dosso and Veronica Besana. Return expected on the 15th for those who will participate in the Giovannini memorial, on the 17th for the others. Mattia Furlani himself, revelation as a long man in 2024 with the bronze won at the Paris Games, will go to Formia from 5 to 18 January. The first international event to mark on the diary is the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, from 6 to 9 March.
in America
—
On paper it is one of the objectives circled by Tokyo 100m and 4x100m Olympian Marcell Jacobs, who unlike last year has planned a return to indoor activity. Also for this reason, in his base at the Hodges Stadium of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville he started working before many others and on December 6th he celebrated the first month of training completed “with effort, dedication and a great desire to improve”. Following him again is the fifty-four year old American coach Rana Reider. European 100m vice-champion Chituru Ali also trains in the United States, but in Los Angeles. The 9″96 Italian, after three seasons in Rome with Claudio Licciardello, is at Ucla with the seventy-four-year-old American coach John Smith, spiritual father of generations of top-level sprinters and hurdlers, including Olympic and world championship gold medals. The attention of the blue staff is maximum, to understand if the choice made by the twenty-five year old giant is the right one. The possibility of seeing him already on the track at the European Indoor Championships cannot be ruled out, with a personal best of 6″53 in the 60s.
the others
—
The work of weightlifters Leonardo Fabbri and Zane Weir continues in Stellenbosch, South Africa, where another 4×100 Olympian, Fausto Desalu, will also arrive from January 1st. Fabbri and Weir themselves will return to Italy (in Bologna) on January 28-30 for a mini-meeting. Also in retreat, but in Ancona, is the European silver medalist Larissa Iapichino, who will remain in the Marche from 6 to 18 January. Finally, the walkers: Massimo Stano is in Japan with his family and has already set his sights on the September World Championships, while Antonella Palmisano could run the 35 km Tricolori in Acquaviva delle Fonti, Bari, on January 26th.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED