First day of competition in Rieti (ITA) for the Italian U18 Championships on a beautiful sunny day starting with the:
10,000m track walk U18 boys
The favorite of the race is undoubtedly Diego Giampaolo (ITA) who immediately takes the lead in a very decisive manner from the start.
After one lap he already has about 20m of advantage. Behind him a trio: Ivan Giangaspero, Tommaso Iori, and Giorgio Lauria.
It soon becomes clear that there will be no history for gold.
We will attend a "one man show" with the hope that at least the fight for the other medals will tell us something more interesting, otherwise we will have to attend a rather boring race.
With only one possible bet. That Diego Giampaolo will be able to double all the others is almost certain, but will he be able to double those who will accompany him on the podium twice? The accreditation time would allow it; we'll see what the race will say.
Diego Giampaolo's split times are as follows:
- 1.000m: 4:35.4
-- 2.000m: 9:10.3 (4:34.9)
- 3.000m: 13:48.2 (4:37.9)
- 4.000m: 18:24.8 (4:35.6)
- 5.000m: 23:06.7 (4:41.9)
Halfway through the race we realize that the dubbing of the athletes on the podium will only be one lap.
Diego Gianpaolo contionua with the pace of him:
- 6.000m: 27:44.0 (4:37.3)
- 7.000m: 32:26.6 (4:42.6)
- 8.000m: 37:01.7 (4:35.1)
- 9.000m: 41:38.2 (4:36.5)
- last 1.000m in 4:37.30
Towards the 32 minutes of the race, Giorgio Lauria forces his pace from the trio chasing the leader, first off is Tommaso Iori and then finally Ivan Giangaspero. The fight for the podium seems to be over here but in the last two laps Ivan Giangaspero manages to catch up and overtake Giorgio Lauria and wins the silver.
Victory and title to Diego Giampaolo (ITA) in 46:15.50
Second place and silver to Ivan Giangaspero (ITA) in 48:05.14
Third place to Giorgio Lauria (ITA) in 48:13.62
Fourth place to Tommaso Iori (ITA) in 48:50.71
A brief technical consideration: two disqualified athletes and two others who were stopped in the penalty area for a total of 17 red cards issued by the judges (11 for bend knee and 6 for loss of contact) says a lot about the average technical level of the race we have witnessed.
5,000m track walk U18 girls
In the competition of U18 girls there are two favorites for the title: Giada Traina and Giulia Gabriele. The second boasts a better personal best than the first (24:06.02 compared to 24:12.11) but the first has bigger wins in head-to-head matches.
Five of them start immediately in the lead: the two favorites and Verdiana Casciotti, Sofia Fiorini and Rachele Moscati, with the others behind.
When there are three laps to go, Giada Traina and Giulia Gabriele force the pace and the other two off.
These are the split times of the leaders:
- 1.000m: 5:18.4
- 2.000m: 10:32.4 (5:14.0)
- 3.000m: 15 47.7 (5:15.3)
- 4.000m: 19:56.5 (4:08.0)
- last 1.000m in 4:33.84
The fight between the two leaders continues until 250m from the finish when Giulia Gabriele tries to overcome the opponent who, however, rules and detaches her definitively.
Victory and title to Giada Traina (ITA) in 24:28.34
Second place and silver to Giulia Gabriele (ITA) in 24:32.50
Third place to Sofia Fiorini (ITA) in 24:51.34
(Photos by Grillotti for Fidal - ITA)