Since the Italian Championships have been moved to September and the U20 and U23 Chiampionships were too far away, this year I have only the U18 championships left, which nevertheless were expected to be very interesting. I was undecided whether to try to arrive for the first race (h 10.00) or to go directly for the second one (h 10.45), but the outcome is what I imagined: I leave hoping to arrive in time for the first, but at the end I just make it for the second one, also because of parking problems, unusual for Rieti, even at the time of the Meeting (but then there were more parking lots).
I think I will find a desert and instead the main stand is mostly full: athletes and accompanying people are enough to make a crowd, ordinary spectators I have seen very few. From the upper side of the grandstand you can see little: it is full of people at the balustrade, and so it will be for the whole day. After the first heat (which, unlike in the main championships, was the fastest) I move to the lower side.
After the heptathlon's 100hs, I move to the other stand for the decathlon's LJ. The sun is hot, so that in the afternoon I will discover I have a little sunburn. In the group of the best, the judge gives the impression of putting the measurement post a bit backwards: I think, however, that if no one protests, maybe he sees something that we do not see. Towards the end, however, someone protests. If I understand correctly, they get to measure the jump twice: from where the judge said and from where they said, but I don't know how it ended.
After long jump, I go back to the main tribune for the heptathlon's high jump, impossible to follow from the opposite tribune because the display is turned on the other side. Great race, with a level that would have seemed high even at senior level: 8 above 1.60 and 2 at 1.68. Then the single events start, with the 400hs heats. I had planned the lunch break in the interval between the girls' and the boys' heats, but I'm hungry and, above all, I discover that there will be no interval, with 7 girls' heats. So I can get to eat (a pasta Gricia not bad, in a food truck outside the stadium) between the 6th and 7th girls' heat and eat it between the girls' 7th and the boys' 1st.
I think I will find a desert and instead the main stand is mostly full: athletes and accompanying people are enough to make a crowd, ordinary spectators I have seen very few. From the upper side of the grandstand you can see little: it is full of people at the balustrade, and so it will be for the whole day. After the first heat (which, unlike in the main championships, was the fastest) I move to the lower side.
After the heptathlon's 100hs, I move to the other stand for the decathlon's LJ. The sun is hot, so that in the afternoon I will discover I have a little sunburn. In the group of the best, the judge gives the impression of putting the measurement post a bit backwards: I think, however, that if no one protests, maybe he sees something that we do not see. Towards the end, however, someone protests. If I understand correctly, they get to measure the jump twice: from where the judge said and from where they said, but I don't know how it ended.
After long jump, I go back to the main tribune for the heptathlon's high jump, impossible to follow from the opposite tribune because the display is turned on the other side. Great race, with a level that would have seemed high even at senior level: 8 above 1.60 and 2 at 1.68. Then the single events start, with the 400hs heats. I had planned the lunch break in the interval between the girls' and the boys' heats, but I'm hungry and, above all, I discover that there will be no interval, with 7 girls' heats. So I can get to eat (a pasta Gricia not bad, in a food truck outside the stadium) between the 6th and 7th girls' heat and eat it between the girls' 7th and the boys' 1st.
In the early afternoon the races are so many that you cannot follow them all. You follow little the qualifications of the girls' javelin, with the display that you see little and the speaker that ignores them. At the beginning of the second group, when Botter makes a long throw, I believed it was still warm-up. Botter is impressive: if you meet her in another context you would never believe she's 16. Maybe if she were dark skinned someone would doubt about her age. I do not know how serious they were, but I heard some doubting about the age of two boys of African descent, a sprinter and a javelin thrower. Even less we follow the qualifications of the girls' hammer, in the outside platform: after the final of 100 I will move in the start sector to see something, but I'll just catch a glimpse of the last throw.
The main event of the early afternoon, however, are the heats of 100: great level, especially the girls. Cappabianca is impressively thin, more like a high jumper than like a sprinter, but also Menchini is not so different. There is also the decathlon's high jump, which ends when both the qualifications of the girls' HJ and the decathlon's 400 should have started, so that the schedule begins to accumulate delays. The qualifications of vertical jumps (boys' PV and girls' HJ) last instead. The measures were a bit ambitious: 4.50 and 1.70 respectively. but they will pass with 3.90 and 1.57.
At 17.30 I move to the other stand to follow the most expected event, at least by me: the girls' long jump, with the three stars. Just at that moment, however, it starts to rain. I try to resist a little, then it increases and I have to go back. It ends up that when Iapichino (who qualifies right away, so she jumps only once) jumps, I do not even notice, while I can catch a glimpse of Crida and Zanon. Fancy that I thought that the reason why I would remember this day in the years to come would be just that I saw Iapichino for the first time!
Back in the main stand I see my fellow citizen (from Ciampino) Flamigni enter the final in the 800, then the finals of the 100, of lower level compared to the heats, also because of the wet track. After 100 the stadium begins to empty: for the 2000 SC, both fought and with surprise endings, there are far fewer people.
When the 10,000 meters walk start, at 20.30 exact, there is an unreal, almost uneasy silence. The field events are over for an hour, we are few and even the speaker is silent. I think I will watch them eating something, but the kiosks are all closed. In the 6th lap the lappings begin, in the 9th the first 4 have lapped all but 3, halfway tou don't understand anything anymore. It is thought that Finocchietti will then make a gap, instead the second arrives at 6 seconds, the third at 16.
The main event of the early afternoon, however, are the heats of 100: great level, especially the girls. Cappabianca is impressively thin, more like a high jumper than like a sprinter, but also Menchini is not so different. There is also the decathlon's high jump, which ends when both the qualifications of the girls' HJ and the decathlon's 400 should have started, so that the schedule begins to accumulate delays. The qualifications of vertical jumps (boys' PV and girls' HJ) last instead. The measures were a bit ambitious: 4.50 and 1.70 respectively. but they will pass with 3.90 and 1.57.
At 17.30 I move to the other stand to follow the most expected event, at least by me: the girls' long jump, with the three stars. Just at that moment, however, it starts to rain. I try to resist a little, then it increases and I have to go back. It ends up that when Iapichino (who qualifies right away, so she jumps only once) jumps, I do not even notice, while I can catch a glimpse of Crida and Zanon. Fancy that I thought that the reason why I would remember this day in the years to come would be just that I saw Iapichino for the first time!
Back in the main stand I see my fellow citizen (from Ciampino) Flamigni enter the final in the 800, then the finals of the 100, of lower level compared to the heats, also because of the wet track. After 100 the stadium begins to empty: for the 2000 SC, both fought and with surprise endings, there are far fewer people.
When the 10,000 meters walk start, at 20.30 exact, there is an unreal, almost uneasy silence. The field events are over for an hour, we are few and even the speaker is silent. I think I will watch them eating something, but the kiosks are all closed. In the 6th lap the lappings begin, in the 9th the first 4 have lapped all but 3, halfway tou don't understand anything anymore. It is thought that Finocchietti will then make a gap, instead the second arrives at 6 seconds, the third at 16.
After the fourth is arrived, I go out. Going to my car I see one that passes me running, and I think he is Baldini. Of course he was not going at his opace, otherwise I would not have had time to figure out who he was.
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