European Athletics Championships, Italy triumphs: six medals in one day, never happened

Marcell Jacobs confirmed himself as European champion and behind him in the 100 meters final was the other blue Chituru Ali

ROME – Apotheosis of Italy at the European Championships in Rome: three gold, two silver, one bronze. Six medals in a memorable evening for Italian athletics: it had never happened before, the total is already ten times on the podium (5-4-1) after two days out of six. It’s a legendary night at the Olympic Stadium, in raptures with the exploits of an exceptional team to celebrate 3 gold medals in 42 minutes.

Historic double in the 100 meters with Marcell Jacobs confirming himself on the throne of Europe in 10.02 (+0.7) ahead of the other Italian Chituru Ali, silver with a personal best of 10.05 preceding the Briton Romell Glave (10.06). The Olympic champion returns to success: it is his second consecutive European title in front of an audience crazy with joy.

The master of the weight is Leonardo Fabbri who dominates the race with 22.45, a championship record in the fifth throw, after having already booked the title with 22.12 in the second round. The Florentine giant is from another category, adding the European gold to last season’s world silver and this year’s indoor world championship bronze: over a meter ahead of the Croatian defending champion Filip Mihaljevic (21.20), third the Polish Michal Haratyk (20.94).

Lorenzo Simonelli triumphs in the 110 hurdles with a sensational Italian record of 13.05 (+0.6), seventh European time ever and second in the world this year. Extraordinary performance by the 22-year-old Roman, always in the lead to demonstrate an overwhelming supremacy over his opponents: his 13.20 (+0.5) from the semi-final with which he had already rewritten the 13.21 of two weeks ago was demolished. Silver to the Spaniard Enrique Llopis (13.16), bronze to the Swiss Jason Joseph (13.43) far away.

In the long run Mattia Furlani wins silver with a wonderful jump of 8.38 (-0.5) and improves his under 20 world record by two centimeters. It is a very high level competition in which Miltiadis Tentoglou repeats himself, landing twice with a personal score of 8.65 (-0.5) but once again the 19-year-old Italian talent, already silver this year at the Indoor World Championships won by the Greek champion, manages to express himself to the fullest.

At the start of the evening, the splendid bronze in the 20 kilometer race walk for Francesco Fortunato, welcomed by the roar of the Olympic stadium. At the finish line he finishes in 1h19:54 behind the Swede Perseus Karlstrom (1h19:13) and the Spaniard Paul McGrath (1h19:31) after having separated the other pursuers of the leading pair.
The maximum number of medals in a single day for the Azzurri it had been five so far, in the last one in Split 1990.
In the heptathlon Sveva Gerevini deserves applause, protagonist of a great progress with 6379 in sixth place, surpassing the Italian record by 194 points after 25 years (6185 by Gertrud Bacher in 1999).

(Photo from profile X by @ItaliaTeam)