Italian relay team, what harmony: “We work hard and leave nothing to chance”

by our correspondent Andrea Buongiovanni

October 14th
– TRENT

Just listen to them for a few minutes and the secret of the blue 4×100 Olympic gold and world champion silver is soon revealed: it is the harmony that unites the fractionists. On the stage of the Palazzo della Regione, at the Sports Festival, Roberto Rigali, Lorenzo Patta and – now an almost permanent guest – Filippo Tortu take to the stage. Absent Marcell Jacobs, they are three-quarters of the relay team that was second only to the United States at the World Championships in Budapest, less than two months ago. The meeting, with the three constantly exchanging jokes, but also revealing themselves as champions not only on the track, is fun and flows quickly.

ALCHEMY

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“In meetings and at races – admits Tortu, the veteran of the group – it’s a constant teasing. But then, when the time comes, we work hard and leave nothing to chance. Getting to this result wasn’t easy: for many reasons, after a complicated 2022, we struggled for a while to qualify for the World Cup. But when the key event arrived, also thanks to quality changes, our extra weapon, we demonstrated that we knew how to be at height of the situation”. Patta, who over time has slipped from the first to the third fraction, confirms: “Everyone has their own character – he says – everyone has their own characteristics: adding them up, a group emerges with clear ideas and objectives. Yes, a group of friends. Which in certain moments of the year they spend together 24 hours a day and they get along well.” Rigali, although he has been around for some time, thanks also to his individual progress, was promoted to starter practically for the first time. “I am also the only one who does not belong to a military sports group – he recalls, thanking his Bergamo Stars – and therefore I worked twice as hard to get here… I have never stopped believing in it, not even in the most difficult moments and this is why after I celebrated winning the medal for two or three weeks.” The corporate situation, for him, could soon change. Deservedly.

THE FUTURE

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The three have also been on holiday together: first in Golfo Aranci, in Sardinia (“Where Patta caught fish with a bucket” smiles Tortu), then – without Lorenzo – in Copenhagen, at the house of a friend of Rigali’s. “A very long season awaits us – they predict together – at the beginning of May it will also pass through the Bahamas for the relay World Championships which will qualify for the Paris Olympics. We will have a title to defend and even if there are five or six national teams capable of arriving far away, we cannot fail. And let’s not forget the home match with the European Championships in Rome: the enthusiasm, in those days, will be through the roof.” There are other witnesses to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.