European Athletics Championships in Gothemburg (2006)

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 These days there should have been the European Athletics Championships in Paris. I had already thought about which hotel to go to, but I hadn't booked, nor bought the event tickets, which were already on sale, because I didn't know how I would organize the holidays. They would have been my sixth European Championships: I attended all those from 2006 onwards, with the sole exception of 2012. I have already talked about Amsterdam 2016 and Berlin 2018, this time I will talk about my first experience: the 2006 edition in Gothemburg, called Iotebori by locals and Gothenburg by Italian TV speaker Franco Bragagna.

The event took place at the Ullevi stadium, inaugurated in 1958 (the owner of the B&B where I was staying said he had attended the opening match) and that year it hosted  the Sweden-West Germany semifinal of the football World Cup. He showed all its age. The thing that struck me most was the shortage of aisles: I once counted 53 seats between my seat and the closest one. I was wondering what would have happened if the stadium were very full (luckily, it almost never was) and there was an emergency.

The first event was the qualification of women's hammer , so given the precedents of Italy's  number one, I wondered "will I arrive in time for Balassini's first foul?". This time she did not make three fouls, but she still underperformed, far from qualification (and I think her first was actually a foul). The other Italian Claretti did better, coming 7th. The first two days saw the new triumph of the greatest local idol "Carro", or Carolina Kluft, who, like the previous year in Helsinki, defeated the French Barber. Swedish TV showed the final with commentary from French TV, which said "what a fantastic athlete Carolina Kluft is!".

The Italian team did not have a very high average level, but on the other hand they could boast the two widest favourites in the men's program: Howe in long jump and Baldini in the Marathon. Both kept with the prediction. Of LJ I remember that I was on the side of the platform, but too far behind to understand the measures: Howe's victory never seemed in question, despite the non-transcendental measure (8,20). About the Marathon, I saw a passage in the city centre in the first kilometers, with all athletes still in group, then I went to the stadium, anxiously waiting for updates on the scoreboard (smartphones were still to come) after the disappointment of the previous year (Baldini retired), but finally I saw him enter the stadium first.

Italy also won the two Marathon team events: the men's one as favourites, the women's one as a  surprise. With today's rules, we would therefore have been at the top of the medal table, with 4 golds, but then the team Marathon was not part of it. In victory ceremonies there was a choir that sang the anthems, but only a few (I think Sweden, Great Britain, Germany and France); given the probability that it would be played at least three times, they could have prepared ours too.

Although it was not in a great year, we always hoped for Gibilisco, after the great race in Paris three years before. The qualifications were interrupted by a thunderstorm: the Italian had already been eliminated, but was readmitted as he was tied with some athletes still in the race at the time of the interruption. The final was with 20 athletes and began long before the other events of the day: Gibilisco never gave the impression of fighting for first places and closed 7th.

Apart from those with Italian protagonists, the event I remember best is women's high jump, which in any case had two Italians in the final: Di Martino (not at her best) and the surprising Meuti (who I heard about for the first time when they announced the team). Surprisingly, the Belgian Hellebaut won, improving first to 2.01, then to 2.03. After the match I met her in the parking lot of the stadium, celebrating with a group of compatriots, but she was having problems in uncorking the chapagne ... Since then she became my idol for the rest of her career, with her secretary-style look and always clumpsy: all the times she was given a cup she seemed to ask herself "and how do I take this?".

On the other hand, a race that I remember negatively is the men's 200: one got to the final with 20.80 and to the podium with 20.60. Regrets for Howe, who seemed able to easily take at least the silver. Other negative episodes were the runaways from anti-doping: we noticed Vroemen's one, already suspected about, who withdrew from the final of 3000sc and was disqualified a few weeks later. It went unnoticed at the time, but aroused suspicions afterwards instead Lebedeva's one, who withdrew from the final of triple jump and since then has never been the same, although remaining at a high level. A few years later she was also disqualified.

The next European Championships would be four years later, as for Berlin 2018. But then it was known in advance