The first medal for Italian gymnastics at Paris 2024, after the glory of Tokyo and the misery of this first part of the French edition of the Games, comes from a 19-year-old boy who has been jumping as which was before Of course, Mattia Furlani has a hero like Milziades in front of him, Tentoglu who repeats the gold from three years ago with 8.48, but his 8.34 in the long jump is worth a very heavy bronze.
“It was unbelievable, I believed it until the end: but I don’t want to cry in front of the cameras anymore, otherwise you will call me a crybaby…”, his first words with a slight accent Roman. “But this is the greatest feeling of my life.” At times, Furlani also nursed the dream of a more valuable medal – money was lost by only two centimeters, the distance that separates him from the Jamaican Pinnock – under the eyes of his coach’s mother Kathy Sech (a former Senegalese sprinter) who smiled and encouraged, advised and encouraged in the stands. Immediately a great jump, as if he was taking his first Olympics. Even Tentoglu must have been afraid (8.27 at the first break), before he started back like a hero: six jumps, and only one failure, on the last attempt when the gold was already certain.
But already in the second the Greeks had printed his first place 8.48 on the sand. On the other hand, Pinnock, despite his habit of going very far from the red line, had set the second jump at 8.36. So Mattia’s race – the best youth of a generation of athletes made up of several second generation Italians – became a chase: the desire must be betrayed on the third and fourth jump, null, and the fifth one that everyone dreams of. But it was still 8.34. The last one, for sure on a medal because the other five behind them had not done better, was almost a waste. Then Mattia pointed with the tricolor on his shoulders.
The blue night was opened by the performance of Pietro Arese. In the 1500, American Cole Hocker won gold, eliminating the champion of the Tokyo Olympics, the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, only in fourth place. Silver for Englishman Josh Kerr, bronze for fellow American Yared Nuguse. But Arese’s eighth place was accompanied by an Italian record that surpasses the image of the average Italian speed: with 3’30”74 Arese improves by two seconds the Italian record (3’32” 78) held since 1990 by Gennaro Di Napoli. “I was surprised to see this time, reading the ‘0’ because the second digit of the seconds surprised me,” said the Italian distance runner. “This result came as a result of a lot of work and being surrounded by the right people, not oppressive, keeping the human side to the face. “
In the women’s long jump, good news from Larissa Iapichino: the Italian, who had to miss Tokyo 2020 due to injury, flew to 6.87 with the second jump and qualified directly for the final by going over the required amount of 6.75 after starting with 6.60. “It was a good qualification, I liked it because I hate competing in the morning – Iapichino thought – because I’m an afternoon girl. But, jokes aside, it was fantastic because finally I’m an athlete too at the Olympics and I’m in the final I put in a lot of determination and enthusiasm, and I thought to myself myself as a seven-eight-year-old when I dreamed of reaching a goal like that and competing as usual, with the knife between your teeth.”