The 20-year-old from Milan flies at 2.29 and triumphs in the high air as he did at the Golden Gala: “What an honor to challenge someone like Mutaz”
Under the bar, waiting for Gimbo Tamberi, there is (again) Matteo Sioli. The 20-year-old from Milan from Paderno Dugnano wins the high in the second consecutive stage of the Diamond League. And if in Rome, two weeks ago, he imposed himself with 2.28, in Doha he grows by a centimeter, remaining one more from the personnel with which he stood out at the under 23 European Championships last summer. With, on this occasion, a good load of suggestions, because the beaten one is Mutaz Barshim. The Qatari, who plays at home, at 34 years old and with children in the stands, lives day by day: he is full of ailments, he competes slowly, but he still has unique elasticity and elegance. The one at the Qatar Sports Club, with the thermometer at 32°, is the first international event in the country after the outbreak of the Middle Eastern war: the meeting should have opened the circuit on 8 May. The Fiamma Azzurra is immediately precise at 2.16, 2.20, 2.24 and, with a bit of luck, at 2.27. The run-up is apparently slow, but the boy, 198 cm tall as a former basketball player, has great verticality. At the most severe odds, the Ukrainian Doroshchuk, indoor world champion, finally surrendered. It’s a two-man challenge, with Sioli ahead due to an error by Barshim at 2.24. The pupil of Felice Delaini, student in Catering Sciences at the University of Milan, flies at 2.29 on the third attempt, the Olympic gold medalist misses two and holds the last one at 2.31. He fails and the success goes to the blue who, after a nil, mindful of the winter problems with a scaphoid, stops. “It’s an honor to compete with a champion like Barshim – says Sioli – I’m happy and I thank those who help me every day”. Today, in Essen, there is Falocchi.
DOSSO AND DALLAVALLE
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Zaynab Dosso did well, 2nd in 11″01 in the 100 (+2.5) of the Jamaican Nelson (10″88) and Andrea Dallavalle, 4th in the triple with 17.19/+0.9 in a race in which the Portuguese Pichardo brings the best world measurement for 2026 to 17.71/+0.4: both were making their debut (today, at the Societari di Rieti, it’s the turn of Diaz, with Stano and Fortunato in the 10,000 race walk). In the specialty 15.13/+1.3 of the Cuban Velazco, world leader since 2023 and in the 400 hs 52″30 of the Slovakian Zapletalova, 2nd European all-time (Folorunso 7th in 54″85). Sabbatini and Zenoni 6th and 7th in the 1500m (4’06”24 and 4’06”25).