Tamberi apologizes to the fans: “I provoked by Fassinotti”

The Olympic gold medalist, with a video, addresses the fans: “I certainly made a mistake, but it teased me throughout the match. Sportsmanship is a fundamental value”

Gimbo Tamberi decides to apologize to fans and enthusiasts for what happened on Sunday evening on the platform of the Alto degli Assoluti at Guidobaldi in Rieti (yellow card for unsportsmanlike behavior included) and, to do so, he publishes a long video message on his Instagram profile. “I want to apologize for my gesture – he says -; in a moment of maximum tension, I reacted to a provocation and I certainly made a mistake, so I apologize to everyone present and to those who watched the race. I fell into a provocation” .

The squabble

The crime takes place at the end of an anomalous match, which ended in the “play-offs” with Marco Fassinotti. The Olympic champion conquers the sixth Italian outdoor title of his career, but not going beyond 2.26 at … the fifth attempt, a measure that twenty days from the World Championships in Eugene cannot satisfy him. Fassinotti, after the winning leap of his rival, approaches to shake his hand, but Gianmarco in response blatantly sends him to that country.

“It was I who tried to greet him – the Marchesman will say – and he, like other times in the past, addressed me with an unhappy phrase: ‘You can’t jump anymore’ he told me, knowing full well that my only goal of the day it was going much higher. ” “I heard that he asked the judges to continue – replied the Piedmontese -: to clarify the situation without him getting further nervous, I just said ‘I don’t think we can’. Everyone, however, saw how it went. I’m not even taken: do what you want, as always. But we’re adults: I even asked that he not be given the yellow card. It’s not nice for an Olympic champion. The decision to continue the game in the play-offs? I was fine, I think about him too “.

the message

The provocation to which Tamberi now refers is linked to the phrase “You can’t go on anyway”. “Once I finished the jump – it’s Gimbo’s version – I approached Marco to give him his hand and congratulate him, because he had had a great race. But while I held out my hand, he replied with a grin, like to say: ‘It is true that you have won, but what you wanted you will not be able to obtain.’ past: I remember very well when in 2013 I tried in every way to defeat him, but he didn’t let me and teased me throughout the race. But sportsmanship, as anyone who knows me knows, is the most important thing for me: in our sport and in life. So I apologize. ”

ttn-14