The third day of the U20 and U23 individual Italian Championships starts at 9:00 with the 10.000m track walk U20 women.

We tell you right away that, while the U23 race was so boring in the afternoon, the one reserved for the U20s was so interesting today.

10.000m track walk U20 women

Twenty-five athletes at the start, but the contenders for the medals can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

At the start the temperature is acceptable, but during the race we see a rising temperature and humidity that hardly allow for exceptional results.

Six start immediately in the lead: Anita Titone, Vittoria Di Dato, Martina Casiraghi, Anita Laiolo, Anna Ferrari and Alexandrina Mihai.

A train of six wagons is formed immediately, in which Anita Titone acts as the locomotive.

After the first lap, the train undergoes a jolt and immediately loses a wagon: it is Anita Laiolo, who has to stop to fix the laces-up of her shoes and loses about 15 seconds (almost thirty meters).

Anita Titone, the locomotive, however, travels at a not very sustained speed and will allow Anita Laiolo, albeit with a great expenditure of energy, to return after a few laps.

Split times in first 5.000m:

- 1.000m: 5:02.3

- 2.000m: 10:06.1 (5:03.7)

- 3.000m: 15:10.7 (5:04.6)

- 4.000m: 20:23.6 (5:12.9)

- 5.000m: 25:38.8 (5:15.2)

In the meantime, the jury has already begun its work by starting to fill the board of the disqualification proposals with a series of red cards stickers that some of those present also seem excessive (at the end there will be twenty).

Alessia Titone, evidently not in a day of good shape, compared to the one seen a month ago in Podebrady when she finished 10th (and first of the Italians in 49:34, and exempt from yellow pallets and red cards), shows evident signs of fatigue. Her personal best of 48:39.98 obtained in Bergamo in April and also the result of Podebrady, seems a distant mirage.

Anna Ferrari, the second of the Italians in the European Team Championship in 50:01 is among the first to leave the train, in which the driving locomotive is no longer Alessia Titone, but Vittoria Di Dato.

The wagons detach and now remain in four.

Another force of the pace by Vittoria Di Dato and only two wagons remain attached to the locomotive: that of Martina Casiraghi and that of Alexandrina Mihai, who, however, at the next forcing of the leader decides, contrary to Martina Casiraghi, to continue with her pace.

It is good, but above all it shows everyone a race walk live up to this name.

The battle between Vittoria Di dato and Martina casiraghi still continues a few laps, until, following a further increase in pace by Vittoria Di Dato, but above all she (Martina Casiraghi) too burdened by two red cards (also in this case someone sees them excessive in the stands) decides to be satisfied with silver.

She does very well. In this way she redeems, in front of the opponents Mihai, Titone and Di Dato, the poor figure made in Agropoli at the 2019 U18 Championships.

For once, we are truly happy that a deserved disqualification (that of 2019) has given the desired effect, that of correcting and improving the athlete.

Split times in second 5.000m:

- 6.000m: 30:29.3 (4:50.5)

- 7.000m: 35:19.1 (4:49.8)

- 8.000m: 40:07.2 (4:48.1)

- 9.000m: 44:54.2 (4:47.0)

- last 1.000m in 4:42.43

We liked the game so much that today we allow ourselves to express ourselves as in football with the classic end-of-game report:

- Vittoria Di Dato: 8.5, technically beautiful, victory in 49:36.3, but far from one's personal best oif 48:45.17

- Martina Casiraghi: 7.5 especially for the above. We too are among those who probably consider the two red cards against her to be excessive, although we respect them and as always: “Penalty is when the referee whistles” (Vujadin Boskov ex football mister)!

Second in 49:44.50.

- Alexandrina Mihai: 9, with a bronze (the mark: 49:46.26) in the neck from U20 after a gold in the neck in 2019 from U18, for how she managed the race in the last 3.000m, but above all for that showcase race walk that it likes so much to those who really care about this specialty.

They follow:

(Photos by Francesca Grana, ITA for Fidal)

Risultati ufficiali - Official results