World Championships Tokyo, Italy celebrates immediately: silver for Palmisano and Battocletti, bronze for Fabbri
Italian Nadia Battocletti ran in 30'38''23, setting a new Italian record
3' min read
3' min read
The first day of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo ended with an almost memorable result for Italy: three medals - the silvers of Antonella Palmisano and Nadia Battocletti and Leo Fabbri's bronze -, a national record, Marcell Jacobs and Zaynab Dosso qualified for the semi-finals of the 100.
The Azzurri therefore managed to leave their mark immediately and put 75% of the podiums won in the last edition of the event, Budapest 2023, in the bag, immediately taking fifth place in the medals table.
The only disappointment, in no small part, was Larissa Iapichino's failure to qualify for the long jump final.
The Italian day started well. Palmisano won silver in the 35 km march, a result that was by no means a foregone conclusion on the eve of the event. The Apulian, Olympic champion for Tokyo 2020, finished in 2h42'24", behind Spain's Maria Perez. "I am happy to have brought home a medal that I was missing," said Palmisano, visibly moved. Nicole Colombi finished eleventh and Eleonora Giorgi seventeenth, the latter penalised by a stop for irregular running.
In the afternoon, Battocletti wrote a new page in history for Italian sport. The woman from Trentino took silver in the 10,000 metres with a time of 30'38"23, a new Italian record. The Italian held her own against the Kenyans and Ethiopians with an intelligent race conduct. In the final, she slipped past her opponents with a generous and impressive sprint. Only the Kenyan Beatrice Chebet managed to hold her off, but the impression was that the distance between the two had narrowed. "I have realised the athlete I am. I feel like I am living a dream," said Nadia with her eyes brimming with tears of joy.
