Italian athletics continues to dominate at the youth level, finishing the day at the Under-20 European Championships with three medals: two gold and one silver.
The Italian wave in Finland was overwhelming, with two finals dominated by two amazing talents. In the 100 meters, Kelly Doualla clocked 11.22 (-0.1), just one hundredth of a second off her Italian U20 record, dominating the race by a full 19 hundredths of a second over her closest rivals.
The 15-year-old native of Pavia is the youngest winner in history at this distance in the 28 editions of this European Youth Championships , at just 15 years and 261 days of age: before her, there was East German Petra Koppetsch, who in 1975 was 16 years and 309 days when she stood on the top step of the podium: the Italian is almost a year younger, and this success comes after her success at the Eyof a couple of weeks ago. The Lombardy native from Cus Pro Patria started well and then unleashed her formidable running action on the straight, uncatchable by all, against athletes even three years older: silver went to Great Britain's Mabel Akande (11.41), bronze to Ukrainian Uliana Stepaniuk (11.53), who preceded the other Italian Alice Pagliarini by just one hundredth of a second, fourth in 11.54.
"I really hoped I could achieve something great," says Kelly Doualla, "and I can say I achieved it; it's what I set out to do since the beginning of the year. I was pretty calm on the track, but I was a little nervous on the blocks, but that's a good thing because it helped me push harder. Without the cheering of the Italians, I don't think I would have made it. My coach Walter Monti also deserves this victory for all the effort he put into it; it was thanks to him and my training partners who always pushed me. I want to continue like this in the future, always improving."
The queen of the triple jump is Milanese Erika Saraceni, born in 2006, the favorite going into the event and leading from start to finish : she jumped 14.24m in no wind on her final attempt to improve by sixteen centimeters on her Italian junior record of 14.08m (+1.2), which she had tied at the start, then landed 14.15m in the wind (+2.1) on her third attempt. Erika also took the event record, achieving it by a whopping half a meter (49 centimeters) over the second-place finisher, Romania's Daria Vrinceanu. In the long jump final, Daniele Inzoli settled the matter on his third attempt, jumping halfway across the serve board: with 7.69m, he earned a spot in the next three rounds.
The Milanese, who turns 17 in four days, had pain in his right foot and slipped his spikes several times. He failed on his fourth to fifth jump (7.50/+0.3), which didn't improve his performance but temporarily vaulted him into second place. Serbian Boskovic's 7.56 immediately pushed him back into third place. He still had a chance on his sixth jump, landing a 7.62, which earned him silver, still as a junior.
(Unioneonline)
