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Caorle, near Venice, is hosting the 2026 edition of the Italian U20 Championships.
The two 5,000m track walking events took place in the late afternoon of Saturday, July 4th.
Men’s U20 5000m
With a large number of athletes at the start, the Technical Delegate opted for two timed sections.
Athletes with the highest accreditation times, started first.
The victory in this event went to Giorgio Cosentino with a time of 21:58.80.
Second place went to Leonardo Innocenti in 22:25.92.
Third place went to Niccolò Santoni in 22:28.17.
The timed session of athletes accredited with the fastest times lives on the battle for the Italian U20 title between Alessio Coppola and Niccolò Vidal, both already selected for the upcoming U20 World Championships.
The pair immediately took the lead with Alessio Coppola, but shortly before the first kilometer he was overtaken by Niccolò Vidal, who passed in 4:07.4. Coppola followed almost two meters behind. The 2,000m mark repeats the same pattern, with Vidal leading in 8:06.9 (3:59.5), Coppola now nearly 4 meters behind.
The situation reverses during the third kilometer, when Alessio Coppola significantly forces the pace and takes the lead in 12:04.2 (his third 1,000m in just over 3:56). It’s immediately clear that this is the definitive move for the gold medal.
At the 4,000m mark, Coppola passes in 16:53.6 (3:49.4), with a lead of just under 40 meters over Vidal.
With a final 1,000m covered in 3:31.90, Alessio Coppola won the title of Italian U20 Champion in 19:45.90.
Second place went to Niccolò Vidal in 19:59:15, a new personal best.
Third place went to Giuseppe Marchionno in 20:42:82, also a personal best.
Women’s U20 5.000m
Once again, due to the large number of athletes at the start, the Technical Delegate opted for two timed sections.
Athletes with the highest accreditation times, started first.
The victory in this race went to Margherita Discepoli in 24:42.57
Second place went to Costanza Cremona (born 2010) in 24:47.85
Third place went to her twin sister Sofia Cremona in 22:28.17
The second timed session instead gives us a performance to remember, the synthesis of which can be summed up very briefly in the following few words: “Serena di Fiabio‘s record-breaking masterpiece”. Her performance was a solo because she took the lead immediately after the starting gun and was never caught.
And this will be the best technical result of the entire first day of the U20 Individual Championships.
Here are her split times:
– 1,000m: 4:10:54
– 2,000m: 4:09.76 (4:09.22)
– 3,000m: 12:28.22 (4:09.46)
– 4,000m: 16:33.93 (4:05.71)
Serena Di Fabio’s final 1,000m is incredible, as is the rest of the race. She walks it in 4:08.81 for a final time of 20:42.74.
This time is by far the new Italian U20 record (previous 21:43.99 of Giulia Gabriele obtained in Camerino-Ancona on 21.09.2024).
With this performance, the 18-year-old from Abruzzo, a member of the Fiamme Azzurre, clearly surpassed the target performance of 21:30 set by European Athletics to establish the first European U20 record over the distance.but also the world best of the season 2026 in front of Imen Saii (Tun) in 22:00.0h and Zoe Woods (AUS) in 22:10.69.
Furthermore, this result represents the fourth best U20 world record of all time, following those achieved by Tatyana Kalmykova (RUS – 20:28.05 on July 12, 2007 in Ostrava, CZE), Irina Stankina (RUS – 20:31.4h on February 10, 1996 in Adler Sochi, RUS), Jin Binjie (CHN – 20:37.7h on March 3, 1990 in Hefei, CHN), and ahead of Anna Lukyanova (RUS – 20:44.45 on February 23, 2010 in Volgograd, RUS).
Second place and silver at the Italian U20 Championships went to Beatrice Palmonari in 22:46.44
Bronze went to Valentina Adamo in 23:11.54
Photo gallery by Francesca Grana for Fidal
