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Month: May 2024

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Marcell Jacobs with Fiona May waiting for Roma 2024

This is not just an interview. It is an heart to heart conversation between two icons of Italian sport, recorded while walking on the new athletics track at the wonderful Stadio dei Marmi. With 22 days to go until the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, scheduled from 7-12 June, (tickets on sale here), Marcell Jacobs speaks with Fiona May.

The reigning Olympic and European champion sprinter and the Italian long jump legend, who will participate at the European Athletics Championships in the role of Ambassador, approach the big event together, sharing their respective feelings and experiences. An informal, sincere dialogue, during which Jacobs also confides to May the responsibility he feels in having to defend an Olympic title, his fears, the desire to find himself again during his training period in America, the desire to win again in front of the home crowd at the Olympic Stadium and the great opportunity represented by the European Athletics Championships in Rome, to bring athletics even more into the hearts of Italians.

Marcell, how are you?

“Good, very good. I’m back in this wonderful city, I missed this incredible stadium, so I’m ready to start my season.”

What is your relationship with Rome?

“The capital is the place I moved to, where I prepared for my last Olympics. It has given me many emotions, many victories, but also defeats that are part of the game and are important because they help you grow. However, I have great memories that tie me to the city.”

How do you feel preparing for such a big event as the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships?

“I am ready and charged up. These months of training in America have helped me, not only for the athletics part. It helped me to get back in touch with myself, I found a Marcell who was lost and needed to understand what he really wanted from life. I regained energy, charge and motivation to come back and compete again. The European Athletics Championships at home will have a whole other value, they will be very important for me, and I am the reigning European champion. Running in front of your people with the Italian jersey on is something incredible and I can’t wait for that moment to come.”

The great thing about you is that you are human, peaceful. I was glad to hear you say that you went in America to find yourself. Often many people don’t really understand that being a champion becomes mentally heavy.

“Yes, let’s talk about this heaviness that comes with winning an Olympic medal. I used to think that once I won the gold, everything would become easier. Instead, that’s when the real work and the hard part started. I am someone who has always put myself on the line, I have never been afraid of defeats and disappointments because they are part of our sport. I wish you could always win, everyone wants to do that, but you have to take steps to get there. I am a human being like everyone, I have my fears, my difficulties. I admit that before entering the race I am afraid, it’s a normal part that I have learned to accept. It’s part of facing the race and it’s an adrenalin rush that I need. All this I have learnt over time, with the bad moments, the disappointments, the defeats, which are an important part for us athletes. We have to be good at looking at that difficulty, learning something from that and then turn it into something that will help us in the future.”

Do you have any particular superstitious rituals before competitions?

“Nothing in particular, I always try to follow a certain routine. Considering that the races are in the evening, I try to sleep a lot, as much as possible, even until 1pm or 2pm. After that I wake up, have lunch and then shower at the same time, prepare all my clothes beforehand, choose a lucky underwear. These little things are part of my preparation.”

You’re a normal guy, come on.

“Absolutely yes (laughs).”

What is the secret of your fantastic 4×100 relay team?

“There is not a real secret. The question is how much we feel like a family and are able to go from being opponents to becoming one single thing in the track. We trust each other, we have a great relationship. We spend a lot of time together, we try to organise dinners to strengthen this relationship. We are always ready to spur each other on, when we see that someone is in trouble we remind him that we are a group, that we win and lose together. This is our strength, which allows us to present ourselves on the track not as the strongest athletes in the world but as those who make the baton travel the fastest, and to win medals.”

Is there any particular teammate you believe will win at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships?

“The Italian national team is going strong right now, there are many athletes who are proving their worth. After Tokyo Olympics Games there was an evolution that made them realise how important it was to believe in their own potential to achieve results. I think we can really win a lot of medals in Rome, I’m thinking of Mattia Furlani, Larissa Iapichino, obviously Gianmarco Tamberi, Leonardo Fabbri and… me.”

Well, of course.

I’ll leave myself for last but I don’t think I am. Then there are the 4×100 and the other relays, we can win several medals and I think we can make a great competition in Rome.

But the most important medal to win will be to conquer the heart of the fans, especially here in Rome.

“Exactly. We are working hard to make people discover athletics. The most important thing is for people to get to know the athlete outside of the performance, because I think the moment they start to see the life they have, the training, the difficulties they can experience then they really start to fall in love with that person and become a real fan who supports them throughout. So I think the most important part is to bring not only athletics but the guys who populate it into homes and families to make them understand that we too are human, that we have our problems, our difficulties, our joys, our families and everything else.”

Marcell, you are really a great ambassador for athletics. So, good luck.

“Thank you Fiona!”

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Fabbri, Dosso and Furlani on fire: “Roma we are coming”

An incredible year for Italian athletics got even better at the Savona Meeting, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger meeting, on Wednesday (15) afternoon, with just 23 days to go until Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships (tickets on sale here).

In the space of 15 minutes, Leonardo Fabbri went to fifth on the world all-time shot put list with a world lead of 22.95m to break the Italian record set by Alessandro Andrei in 1987 by four centimetres.

“I’m really happy, I saw my coach Paolo Dal Soglio cry and I cried too. Crazy stuff! For me Alessandro Andrei means everything, if I’m here it’s thanks to him,” said Fabbri, who is an iron-clad favourite for the shot put title at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 June.

And in the long jump, European U18 and U20 champion Mattia Furlani eclipsed the world U20 long jump record by one centimetre with a second round lead of 8.36m just in time before the conditions in Savona worsened. 

“Finally! I have been looking for this result for a long time and it means a lot, it means that we are working well and on the right path, on the cusp of two very important events such as the European Championships in Rome and the Paris Olympics,” said Furlani as quoted by FIDAL. 

And in the women’s 100m, world indoor bronze medallist Zaynab Dosso improved the Italian record from 11.14 to 11.12 in the heat before slicing another tenth from the record with 11.02 in the final.

Other highlights included Great Britain’s Charles Dobson smashing his lifetime best in the men’s 400m with 44.46 and Ireland’s Sharlene Mawdsley winning the women’s 400m in 51.43 just ahead of Great Britain’s reigning European 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson who opened her 2024 season with a lifetime best of 51.61. 

Credit photo: FIDAL

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Sandra Perkovic in Rome to win again

No one else in the history of the European Athletics Championships has ever won six consecutive titles. Sandra Perkovic is the only one and she isn’t satisfied yet. At the Roma European Athletics Championships, scheduled from 7-12 June at the Olympic Stadium and the Foro Italico Park, the Croatian discus thrower is confirmed to be in attendance and will be looking for her seventh gold medal in a row (tickets on sale here). 

Her married surname (Elkasevic) will appear on her bib in Rome, but in the world of athletics she has become a star as Perkovic, one of the most successful athletes ever, twice Olympic champion (London 2012 and Rio 2016) and twice World champion (Moscow 2012 and London 2017).

At the European Athletics Championships, Perkovic has been undefeated since 2010: in Barcelona fourteen years ago, she began an incredible serie of triumphs, which also included Helsinki 2012, Zurich 2014, Amsterdam 2016, Berlin 2018 and Munich 2022. A record of victories indicative of a sporting continuity and results with few equals in the world.

The 33-year-old thrower will be on the piste at the Olympic Stadium in the opening morning session on Friday 7 June for the qualifying round, ahead of the medal-winning final scheduled for the evening session on Saturday 8 June. The fans has already appreciated her in Rome over the past decade on the occasion of the three triumphs obtained at the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala in the capital (2013, 2015 and 2018).

For the Italian team, the hope is that Daisy Osakue, the Italian record holder with 64.57 last season, can also play a leading role in the discus throw competition.

Credit photo: Colombo\FIDAL

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Marcell Jacobs is already focused on Roma 2024

Marcell Jacobs is back in Rome to conquer the Foro Italico. After completing his training period in the United States and competing at the Jacksonville meeting, the Italian Olympic champion is now training in the Eternal City.

The next target is the Sprint Festival scheduled for next Saturday at the Stadio dei Marmi in Rome, with just 20 days to go until the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, scheduled  7-12 June (tickets on sale here).

This morning Jacobs trained on the new track of the Stadio dei Marmi, the same amazing venue where he will compete at the Sprint Festival on Saturday. The historical stadium has been restored by Sport e Salute and today turned into a wonderful setting for the training of the Italian sprinter.

The Stadio dei Marmi will also be one of the warm-up of the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, while all races will take place or conclude (the race walk and the half marathon) inside the Olympic Stadium.

There will be several special events for fans of speed competition. The mens 100m qualification rounds are scheduled on the first evening session of the European Athletics Championships, on Friday 7 June. Semi-finals and finals will take place on the evening sessions of Saturday 8 June, when Jacobs will try to defend the European champion title that he won in Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships.

In Rome, Marcell will be able to count on the support of the home crowd, ready to fill the Olympic Stadium stands to cheer the Italian national team that has never been so full of talent, spread over several disciplines.

On the evening session of Sunday 9 June, there will be space for the finals of the women’s 100m and men’s 200m, the latter race in which another Italian star, Filippo Tortu, is also aiming to participate. Tortu was one of Jacobs’ teammates in the 4x100m Italian relay that won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The debut of the relays competition at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships is set for the evening session of Friday 7 June, when is scheduled the final of the 4x400m mixed relay. On the morning of Tuesday 11 June are scheduled the men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m relays qualification rounds, while the four relays finals are scheduled for the last evening of competition, on Wednesday 12 June.

Credit photo: GMT

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Lorenzo Simonelli: Rome will be my chance to let people know who I am

Italian hurdler Lorenzo Simonelli hopes to have a glorious appearance in front of a home crowd at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships next month (tickets on sale here), and perhaps a medal on the Olympic stage in Paris.

“Rome has been my big goal since the start of the year. Naturally everyone is talking about Gianmarco Tamberi and our racewalkers but this will be my chance to let people know who I am,” said the 21-year-old talent, who took the 60m hurdles silver medal at the Glasgow 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.

A win, or even a place on the podium, in the Stadio Olimpico in front of what is expected to be a large group of family and friends – “All my friends and family are buying tickets for Rome. It started at about 10, then went up to 20 and now it’s even more! I’m going to have a lot of support there!” – will also end a very long medal drought in this event for the Azzurri.

Not since another Italian icon Eddy Ottoz won the second of his two consecutive continental titles in 1969 has an Italian flag fluttered during a European Athletics Championships 110m hurdles medal ceremony.

Having started the 2024 indoor season with a 60m hurdles personal best of 7.59, set when finishing fourth at the Istanbul 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships, Simonelli clocked 7.50 in his second outing of the winter in Lodz, Poland to take possession of the Italian record from Dal Molin, who had run 7.51 in 2013.

He then reduced the record by three further increments, clocking 7.48 at the Italian national championships, 7.46 in Madrid and then 7.43 in Glasgow, when he chased home the USA’s three-time reigning world champion outdoors Grant Holloway to move up to equal-ninth on the European list for the indoor event.

“I never imagined I’d get this result. I came here wanting to get to the final but to come out with a silver medal is crazy. It was a fight for second place as Holloway is impossible to beat,” said a stunned Simonelli immediately after his Glasgow feat.

Speed is something Simonelli already has in abundance. He is able to boast of a 60m best of 6.59 – a time delivered when won the 2024 Italian indoor title in the event although he was actually second across the line at the championships behind the speedy Cuban Yenns Fernandez – which made him one of the fastest men in Europe, just six-hundredths behind the 2024 European leader and Simonelli’s compatriot Chituru Ali.

In addition, he has a 100m best of 10.25 from last year, which makes him considerably quicker on the flat – at least in terms of listed bests – than all of the other top European sprint hurdlers including Switzerland’s Jason Joseph, Poland’s emerging talent Jakub Szymanski, Spain’s reigning European champion Asier Martinez and the French trio of Sasha Zhoya, Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey, the latter finishing just behind Simonelli in Glasgow to take the world indoor bronze.

Guiding the rising star of Italian athletics and sprinter Zaynab Dosso, who won a 60m bronze in Glasgow, is Giorgio Frinolli, who represented Italy in the 400m hurdles at the Helsinki 1994 European Athletics Championships and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Frinolli could be said to have hurdling in his blood as his father is the Budapest 1966 European 400m champion Roberto Frinolli.

“When I saw Lollo (as Simonelli is nicknamed) in 2022, he was already a top junior but during 10 days of tests, he blew me away,” recalled Frinolli, in an interview last month.

“I could see that he had 13-zero potential even then. And he’s fast, Last year he ran 10.25 in tights and in the rain. He can run 10 seconds dead, perhaps even less. I don’t see any differences in an athletic sense between Marcell Jacobs and Simonelli, the difference is that Lorenzo knows how to hurdle. However, in the hurdles it’s not that an issue of how fast you go on the flat, but being faster between the barriers and controlling that speed,”

“In Glasgow, I looked at Simonelli and Dosso and just admired what they were doing, and how they were doing it. Usually, my athletes at major championships raise my blood pressure but on this occasion they lowered it. I think they can prosper in the theatre that’s going to be the European Athletics Championships in Rome,” added Frinolli.

Credit photo: Grana\FIDAL

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Ivana Spanovic ready to compete with Larissa Iapichino in the long jump

After Armand Duplantis, Femke Bol, Karsten Warholm, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Keely Hodgkinson, another international athletics star has confirmed her presence at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, scheduled 7-12 June  at the Olympic Stadium and the Foro Italico Park (tickets on sale here).

Today European Athletics annunced the participation of Ivana Spanovic, the Serbian long jump queen that won three world golds, five European golds medal, an Olympic bronze medal and six Diamond League editions.

The Olympic Stadium platform in Rome will host an amazing long jump competition, with qualifying in the morning session on Tuesday 11 June and the final scheduled for the final evening of Wednesday 12 June. 

The Italian Larissa Iapichino also wants to play a starring role and she is ready to compete in front of the home crowd.

The challenge between Spanovic and Iapichino is in the name of respect: the Italian, who will make her seasonal outdoor debut at the meeting in Athens on Wednesday 15 May, considers the Serb one of her sporting idols.

Spanovic won her first outdoor World title in Budapest 2023 (with a fantastic 7.14), having triumphed twice indoors, in Birmingham 2018 and at home in Belgrade 2022. Iapichino finished ahead of her at the Istanbul 2023 European Indoor Championships, when she won the silver medal with an Italian indoor record of 6.97, while the Serbian took bronze medal. The Italian also managed to beat Spanovic in three Diamond League meetings in Florence, Stockholm and Monaco.

At the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, the two long jump stars will not be the only contenders for the European title. Big emotions at the Olympic Stadium are guaranteed.

Credit photo: Grana\FIDAL

By Admin EAC Roma2024

High jump star Mahuchikh excited for Roma 2024

The European Athletics Championships are huge moment in any athlete’s career, but for high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Roma 2024 takes on extra significance.

“Rome is a special place for me,” she said talking to European Athletics’ new podcast series Ignite. “My first Diamond League was in Rome in 2018. Second, the world record in high jump was set in Rome in 1987 (2.09m by Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria).

“So, it’s a really special place and this place has a lot of energy. Italian fans, Italian people (it will be) so loud, so crazy. So, I am looking forward to this competition.” (tickets on sale here).

Six years ago, she was an inexperienced, but proven talent who had already won the 2017 world U18 gold in Nairobi, Kenya. But as current world champion and also defending European champion, there is now a heavy expectation on her 22-year-old shoulders.

But, with her coach’s words echoing in her ears, she is determined to savour the occasion. “I am a champion and I will go to protect my title in Rome,” she says. “My coach always says that every competition it should be like a celebration, like a holiday for you. People come to watch you, other people support you, you should enjoy (it). It’s like a party for track and field!”

As with any Ukrainian competitor, the backdrop of war in her home country remains an ever present challenge.

“In this difficult time for me, the high jump helps me focus (on) only track and field inside the stadium and forget anything that is happening outside. I will enjoy the atmosphere. I think if I will enjoy the atmosphere I will jump high,” she says, giving the Roma every encouragement to lend their support.

And the prospect of competing in the Stadio Olimpico lights a spark in the Ukrainian. “The stadium itself, it’s one of the great, great stadiums of the world. You walk in, you walk past all the statues, all the historic stuff. I mean, it’s a great place to have the event, isn’t it?” she says. 

The women’s high jump final takes place on Sunday 9 June.

Credit photo: Colombo\FIDAL

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Medals and new track unveiled for Roma 2024

With one month to go until the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, the medals for the championships were unveiled at a press conference held on a newly laid track in the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday  evening.

The medals for the championships are 85 millimetres in diameter and feature the city’s iconic Colosseum on the left-hand side, the official logo for the championships in the centre and a stylised athletics track around the perimeter of the medals, presenting an innovative fusion between classicism and modernity. 

European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov was in the Italian capital to mark the one month to go countdown and paid fulsome tribute to the Local Organising Committee and Italian Athletics Federation President Stefano Mei for their dedication in staging the event, the third time Italy has staged the European Athletics Championships in competition history.

“Organising a European Championship in the Olympic year is a great challenge. I thank President Stefano Mei for his great commitment. I am sure that Roma 2024 will be an extraordinary edition in a beautiful city and in a historic stadium,” said Karamarinov.

President Mei reflected some of the recent successes of Italian athletes on the continental and global stage and announced that “over 100 athletes” will represent the host nation in Roma 2024 next month.

“We will be here with over 100 athletes, everyone deserves this chance. I am proud of this national team, of our Olympic champions and of the many younger athlete who push to emulate their more successful teammates,” said Mei. 

Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri is also looking forward to the championships and believes the half marathon course in particular will be a brilliant showcase for what Rome has to offer. 

“The combination of sport and major events is an extraordinary driving force for the city. With what we have behind us and what we have ahead of us, these European Athletics Championships have a special flavour.

“I believe the half marathon course is the most beautiful course in the world for the athletes who will make us love this extraordinary sport once again. Long live the European Athletics Championships!” he said.

And to mark the one month to go countdown to the championships, there will be a 40 percent discount on tickets for Roma 2024.

The discount begins at midnight local time on Tuesday (7) and runs through until midnight on Thursday (9). All tickets for the championships can be purchased through the ticketing site here.

By Admin EAC Roma2024

The Finnish athletes return at the Olympic Stadium 50 years later Roma 1974

An emotional ride through the past inside the stadium where they triumphed 50 years ago. The four former Finnish athletes Riitta Salin, Pirjo Häggman, Marika Eklund and Nina Holmen, who competed during the Roma 1974 European Athletics Championships, returned to visit the Olympic Stadium for filming a television documentary and ahead of the next edition of the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, scheduled for 7-12 June (tickets on sale here).

The Finnish athletes won a total of five medals during the Roma 1974 European Athletics Championships. Salin, Häggman and Eklund together with Mona-Lisa Pursiainen made up the Finnish team that won silver in the 4×400 relay behind Germany. Salin also won gold in the 400m individual race, while Holmen triumphed in the 3,000m final and Pursianen stood on the third step of the podium in the 200m.

Completing the great rise of the Finnish female movement was Pirkko Helenius with her bronze medal won in the long jump.

By Admin EAC Roma2024

Ingebrigtsen plots another 1500/5000m double in Roma 2024

If a European gold medal is at stake, then it’s almost certain that Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be there. Still only 23, the prolific Norwegian has already won twelve European senior medals, including eleven gold, outdoors, indoors and on cross country.

Plus, the remarkable runner has won six gold medals at European U20 level on track and cross country. In short, the Olympic and world champion is a medal winning-machine and his eyes are focused squarely on more gold at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships on 7-12 June (tickets on sale here).

Talking on European Athletics’ new podcast series Ignite, he revealed he is targeting yet another double over 1500m and 5000m. It would be an incredible hat-trick, having fulfilled similar ambitions at both Berlin 2018 and Munich 2022.

“My hope and expectations (are) probably to defend both titles,” he said of Roma 2024. “Hoping for good weather and a good championship in general. It’s somewhat earlier this year than it has been previously, so that’s also a nice challenge. That makes it a little bit exciting.” says Ingebrigtsen.

He is also keen to perform in the historic Italian capital. “I think it’s exciting to race in Rome. It’s not something I have done too many times before. One road race and one 3000m in the Diamond League. It’s a nice place and hopefully it can be good conditions that time of year. I think a lot of people will use it as a good stepping stone going into the Olympics and hopefully getting a lot of good answers from all the training that we have done in the winter.”

COne of the most intriguing storylines in recent years has been Ingebrigtsen’s rivalry with Britain’s Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr, who pipped him to 1500m gold at successive World Athletics Championships at Oregon 2022 and Budapest 2023.

Although Ingebrigtsen had the satisfaction of 5000m gold at both championships, there is huge interest in the keen competition at the shorter distance in a year where Ingebrigtsen will also be looking to defend his Olympic 1500m title.

It’s a rivalry that has – on occasions – extended off the track with some verbal barbs, particularly between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr.  “I have some friends and some of them are not my friends, and that is just the way of the game,” says of his fellow runners.

“Athletics is a sport of all different people, all different nations. It’s not a place that everyone can come together and be best friends. Sometimes it’s more focused on the competition and the winning aspect of coming out on top.”

The middle distance events are certainly a mouthwatering prospect this year. The Norwegian says: “I think we are approaching an exciting season and I think we will have to buckle our belts and get prepared.”

The men’s 5000m final will take place on Saturday 8 June and the men’s 1500m final will take place on Wednesday 12 June.

Credit photo: Colombo\FIDAL