Rome – A party, an exhilarating crowd, an overwhelming affection, the best preview for the European Championships in Rome 2024 starting in three weeks (7-12 June). The Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs is the absolute protagonist of the Roma Sprint Festival which inaugurates the renovated Stadio dei Marmi at the Foro Italico: the sprinter of the Fiamme Oro wins in 10″07 with a tailwind of +1.1, improving by four hundredths the time of Jacksonville’s debut in late April, and leaves behind Chituru Ali (Fiamme Gialle) who runs in 10″11 and is very good Matteo Melluzzo (Fiamme Gialle), dropped to 10″13, to become the eighth Italian ever in the 100 meters.
“The race went quite well – comments Jacobs – but always with some errors at the start. If I had started like in the warm-up there would have been another race. I still missed that part, but I’m happy with the launch. And then for two days I’ve had some sort of allergy, I finished the race while I couldn’t breathe, it took me a while to recover, but all good. I am very happy to have raced in this environment, the support from the entire audience was incredible, I had a lot of fun. For us athletes, cheering is very important, the more they support us, the more we are able to bring out the best in ourselves. Now we are all waiting at the Olympic stadium for the European Championships”. See you on Saturday 8 June for the semi-final and final of the 100 metres.
“It’s a shame, a few technical errors, but now I’m in the ranking for the Olympics and we’ll still have fun at the European Championships – comments Chituru Ali – The audience was fabulous, it energized meonly in a stadium like this can it be so close”. It is in fact a celebration of selfies, autographs and lots of children ‘going crazy’ for the athletics champions. The one who reiterates that she is the great revelation of the Italian sprint in 2024 is Arianna De Masi (Atl. Meneghina) capable of improving up to 11″26 (+1.1) to become the sixth Italian of all time: “You run fast on this track, I knew it after the rally a month ago – the words of the Italian relay runner of Nassau – In Savona it didn’t go as I hoped, today’s result is still not what I can do, but I’m satisfied.”
She precedes the American Shania Collins (11″40) and Chiara Melon (Fiamme Azzurre, 11″57). Now we can no longer talk about something new. Elisa Valensin (Atl. Bergamo 1959 Oriocenter) at just 17 years of age rewrote the Italian U20 record of the 200 meters with 23.15 (-0.4), taking it away from Dalia Kaddari who ran in 23.23 in 2020. The young sprinter from Lombardy clearly improves her personal best of 23.49 and confirms the enormous progress he had already shown in the indoor season, when he in turn set the U20 record. The applause from the Marmi public is for her and also for Zaynab Dosso (Fiamme Azzurre) who returned to the 200 meters after six years for a test after the amazing Italian record of the 100 on Wednesday in Savona: the success was hers with 23″10 Third Alice Mangione (Army) with 23.16.
“I took it as a training, I experimented, the track is very good, pushes – Dosso’s words – Maybe I interpreted it a little wrongly, I said ‘I’m going full speed ahead’ but then I struggled in the last 80 metres”. Valensin explodes with joy: “I could feel it, in the race last week in Bergamo I still had it, here on this stratospheric track I felt the energy that Rome gave me, the result was even better than I had hoped for. It’s an incredible feeling to run alongside Zaynab and there’s a super crowd.” Filippo Tortu (Fiamme Gialle) didn’t take off, first at the finish line in 20″72 (+0.7) ahead of Marco Ricci (Army) second with 20″ 97. “I think I did everything wrong – Tortu’s words – exiting the corner was a bit complicated. I thought I would do much better, a time that leaves me amazed on the negative side. The cheering always makes me happy, there are many boys and it is the only positive note of today for me”. International victories in the 400 metres. In the men’s success for the American Trevor Stewart with 45″86 over Vladimir Aceti (Fiamme Gialle) with 46″05 and Riccardo Meli (Fiamme Gialle) with 46″47. In the women’s category, the Dutch Lisanne De Witte stands out with 52″38 ahead of the Belgian Camille Laus (Belgium, 52″67) and Giancarla Trevisan (Bracco Atletica, 52″69).
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