A shower of podiums for Italy on the final day of the European Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere, which earned them first place overall in the medal table, with six golds, three silvers and five bronzes .
And yesterday, seventeen-year-old Laura Frattaroli of Tespiense from Cagliari also earned a medal: in the Italian 4x400, she ran with determination in the second leg, finishing third with her teammates (Francesca Meletto, Alice Caglio, and Giulia Macchi) with a time of 3:34.65. Another remarkable result for Sardinian athletics after Diego Nappi's sensational 200-meter title.
The Porto Torres policeman, on his last day as a minor (yesterday he turned 18), held firm against a 2.9 m/s headwind and took the gold medal with a time of 20.77. He was unlucky in yesterday's Italian 4x100 final: he lost the baton at the first changeover, leaving the Sardinian sprinter unable to compete.
The Italian team was a success, marked above all by the exploits of 15-year-old Kelly Doualla, the new queen of sprinting. After winning gold in the 100 meters, the Lombardy native led the 4x100 relay team to victory, beating favorites Great Britain with a new Italian U20 record. Francesco Crotti also won gold in the triple jump and Matteo Togni in the 110m hurdles. Giuseppe Disabato also took silver in the 10km walk, and Anita Nalesso won bronze in the shot put, Lorenza De Noni in the 800m, Alessia Succo in the 100m hurdles, and the other 4x400m relay team, the men's team.
The successes
The overall haul stands at nine medals, five of them gold. On Sunday in Finland, the most anticipated final on the Italian front was the sprint relay, and they did not disappoint: their final time was 10.30, more than enough to secure the gold medal, even setting the Italian U.20 record (43.72). Shortly after the girls' triumph, 18-year-old Crotti from Lombardy took gold, bringing Italy back to the top spot in the category 32 years after Paolo Camossi. Then came Matteo Togni's gold in the 110m hurdles, the first Italian to do so.
