World Athletics Championships in Budapest - Day 8 (26-08-2023)

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Let's start from the bottom: the penultimate day of the World Championships is over and Italy has four medals, France and Germany zero (the latter still has some chance of winning one, the former really does not). Something absolutely unimaginable not only six years ago, after the disaster of London, but also two and a half, After London I hoped that better times would come, we couldn't keep on "digging after hitting rock bottom", but I didn't think so far and so fast.

 The fourth medal came from the men's 4X100: already at the presentation you could hear the Italians cheering as never before, at least in the stadium. Tortu takes the baton third, after the USA and Jamaica and ahead of Great Britain: he overtakes also the Jamaicans and pulls away or the British. Silver in 37.62, better than yesterday and only 12/100 off the Tokyo time.

But even more incredible was the women's' fourth place. A medal from the men's relay was still conceivable, albeit difficult, but if they had told me on the eve of the race that the women's 4X100 would finish fourth, I would have thought of accidents or mass disqualifications. At the second exchange the Ivory Coast falls down so Italy finds itself clearly fourth, behind the USA, Jamaica and Great Britain. In the fanchor leg, while Sha'Carri resisted Jackson's comeback for the title, Pavese resists Swoboda's comeback and remains fourth.

 Before that there were the heats of the 4X400 and here too good but still predictable results for the men incredible for the women. The men qualified as third thanks to a final comeback by Sibilio, who slipped inside. Among the women, already after the second leg there are USA and GB clearly ahead of Italy and Belgium, but in the fourth we catch up even on the Americans. At the end, Belgium also overtakes us and we finish fourth, but then become third due to the disqualification of the USA. But the incredible thing was the time: 3:23.84, an Italian record by over a second. And then we had an Olympic finalist (although the relay was not her stength...), today not even a semifinalist.

 The day started shortly after 7 a.m. with the Marathon. I arrived on the course, at the point closest to my hotel, and the clock read 21'. The 'outward' passage was at the 5 km mark, and so there has already been one; I therefore have to wait for the 'inward' passage, which is shortly after the 9 km mark (it is 4 laps of 10 km, plus an initial one of 2.195, which for the most part go back and forth on an avenue). Seeing the passage, with the athletes still almost all in a group, I go towards the finish, to see if it is feasible to see it. I arrive when the last athletes are passing, some at the end of the first lap, others at the beginning of the second, and I discover that there would be room, especially on the outward side, but I don't see a screen, although there should be one, since the speaker talks about it, so I wouldn't know what happens between one passage and the next, apart from the updates on the site (which doesn't always work). I therefore decide to move to the front of the Opera, where I had seen a screen a few days earlier when passing by.

 

It is an ideal arrangement: you can find a place without any problem and you can see the screen. The only drawback is the somewhat high volume of the loudspeaker (both the speaker and the music), The first passage I see is the return passage of the second lap, with a leading group of 26 athletes, including Epis. Among the pursuers I notice a Peruvian woman who looks like she is running a middle-distance race. On the outward passage of the third lap the Italian is losing contact, on the return lap the leading group has shrunk to 11, which by the end of the lap has become 6 and a kilometre later 4, all Ethiopians. While the speakers are chatting, one of the leaders can be seen on the screen stopping: at the possible decisive moment of the race, on the screen they show an interview, in Hungarian of course, done on the stage in front of me. In the end, the leaders pass at the start of the last lap, and they are three. On the return, which is the 40th km, the athletes pass one at a time, the first three within 20 seconds of each other, the fourth, the Moroccan Gardadi, even further back. One kilometre later, however, the fourth will have already overtaken the third, who will lose another two positions.

After the arrival of Epis, who will recover another position and finish 12th, I head towards the stadium. On the tram I meet a German who has been to two World Championships that I skipped, Daegu 2011 and Beijing 2015 (but, if I understand correctly, not Doha): Germans and Estonians will be the dominant presences this morning.

 I arrive at the stadium as the first heat of the 110hs decathlon, the only track event of the morning, is starting. When I arrive in front of the screens, the second one is starting and I decide to watch it there. Then I go to buy my T-shirt, and I see that the third one is starting. I think about seeing that one from the screen too, but after a false start I decide instead to go in: I will end up seeing it started. When I get to my seat, I notice that they did not check tickets at the entrance to the sector, so I could have gone to the other side and seen the women's shot put qualification better, but by now I am too tired to move, which means that I will see the decathlon discus better and move on later, for the pole vault.

 In the shot put, the qualifying standard (19.10) seemed exaggerated to me, but instead eight achieved it and one got to the final with 18.59. In the decathlon, after Neugebauer's disaster in the 110hs, Lapage leads ahead of Warner and the German. In the discus, Lapage and Neubauer are in the first group, Warner, with Victor, in the second. Lapage makes 50 metres, Neubauer makes two throws that at the start seem to go very far, but then land suddenly, and stops at 47. In the second group, Victor beats the best performance of the championships twice, taking it to 54.97, while Warner stops at 45 metres. Between the two groups, they run a children's race similar to the pre-Golden Gala 'Palio dei Comuni'. The explanations are only in Hungarian: we understand that it is a mixed relay with legs of 200 metres, but only at the end do I realise that there are 10 legs.

When the discus is over, besides going to the bathroom and getting some food (which they all do, with queues as a consequence), I move to the other side, to closely follow the pole vault (another thing that almost everyone does, apart from those who were already there). I arrive that there is already one athlete (Garland, seventh overall) with two faults at the opening height, 4.50: he will also miss the third, The same thing will happen to Nilsson at 4.80 and in the second group, to Owens-Delerme (so far sixth) at 4.40. In the first group, Neugebauer makes 5.10 and celebrates by going under the bend and calling a wave. First is Williams with 5.30. The second group, which started later, is left: I decide that I will watch it as long as the top ranked men, Warner and Victor, are in the race, then at 4.90 I see that it is getting late and I decide that it will be the last height anyway. The Canadian gets over it, but it will be the last one, the Grenadine does not.

In the evening I had arrived at my seat that the first group of the decathlon javelin was in the third round and the pole was finishing the first height, 5.55. Surprisingly, I discovered that the pole was not where all the other races in the event were held. i.e. on the side of the second bend, but on the outside of the track, where the other days there were the horizontal jumps, a much more favourable position for me. In addition to the Italians, you see many Spaniards, in all sectors, as well as the usual Dutch, concentrated in my area. given the day, there are also many Swedes

 

The decathlon javelin featured athletes from the second half of the ranking in the first group, those from the first half in the second. In the first group, Estonian Oiglane exceeded 70 metres, in the second Victor with 68, overtook Neubauer in third place. The 1500 would then confirm the Lapage-Warber-Victor podium, with Tilga overtaking Neubauer in fourth place. The athletes would not, however, be able to do their classic collective victory lap, as the 4X100 was presented immediately: they had to limit themselves to parading around the outside of the first bend.

The pole vault was another incredible race, hardly imaginable until recently. The progression is very fast: 5.55-5.75-5.85, then up 5 cm at a time. The 5.55 was clered by everybody on first or second, at 5.75 two came out, with Stecchi (whom the speaker in English, with his usual horrendous pronunciations, called as if it was an English name, instead of "Stekki") saving himself in the third. The 5.85 is cleared five, of whom three on them in the first. Among them the Frenchman Collet, for whom I am beginning to wonder if I did not speak too soon when I said that France would remain without medals. The doubts will increase when he also clears 5.90 at the first, along with Nielsen and Obina, while Duplantis will pass and Marschall will keep his attempts after his first fault. Four clear the 5.95 on the first round, all except Collet, who keeps his attempts after one miss. It is then 5 of them who try 6 metres: Duplantis clears them ionfirst with his usual disarming ease, Obiena on second, the others are out, with Nielsen and Marschall tying for bronze. Duplantis will also clear, somewhat less widely but still without any problems, 6.05 and 6.10, while Obiena will miss the first once and the second twice. Duplantis will then fail the record at 6.23. Five years ago I considered a race with three over 5.95 and four over 5.90 incredible, today it was four and five respectively.

There was also the women's shot put final, which, at least for the first three rounds, I followed very little: from my position I had difficulty realising the measures, even with binoculars, yet the field was the same as for the men's race. At the halfway stage Ealey was leading with 20.35 in the first throw, one entered the top eight with 19.26 and there were only 37 centimetres between third and eighth. In the fourth round Gong and Dogmo both threw 19.69, the Portuguese was currently third on countback, but in the next round the Chinese would overtake her. In the fifth round, Ealey stretched to 20.43 and Canada's Mitton, already second, also exceeded 20 metres (20.08). The last round is well followed because the only other competition left is Duplantis' record attempt, but nothing happens.

 There were two other finals: men's 800 and women's 5000. In the former, after a tactical first lap, Arop set off and held the lead until the end, ahead of Wanyoni, while Britain's Pattison took bronze to the delight of my neighbours. The 5000 was also tactical: when the pace quickened, with 800 metres to go, Battocletti was the first to pull away and closed over 30 seconds behind. Kipyegon wins ahead of Hassan and Chebet.

People leave the stadium slowly, it is one of the days when it is fullest. The motto of these World Championships (also on the T-shirt I bought) is 'Witness the wonder': I did not think I would witness so much wonder, especially Italian one.

 

World Athletics Championships in Budapest - Day 7 (25-08-2023)

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 Morning without Italians. It used to happen often in the evening sessions, nowadays only in the morning sessions today and tomorrow, although it could still happen on Sunday evening if the 4X400 do not qualify. I therefore go 'incognito', i.e. without any national symbols, flag or cap (I wear my Zurich 2014 European Championships cap instead). I finally manage to take the direct tram, where you can see mostly French people, and arrive with a good margin. I also have time to get a drink and for the first time I arrive at my place before the start of the first race (and also before my neighbours). It is multiple events' day: one sees many Estonians, Frenchmen (who are playing their last medal chance with Mayer), but above all Germans: already the presentation of their athletes is greeted by a roar that, home athletes aside, had so far only been heard for Tentoglu. On the side of the second bend, where the javelin is held, Finnish and Czech flags are also seen.

The first event is also the only one on rack, the 100 decathlon. Warner wins with 10.32, seventh Victor (not bad for a throwing specialist), 14th Mayer, penultimate Kaul. Immediately afterwards the first field events, which are then the only non-decathlon events, start: women's high jump and men's javelin. Both are presented when they have already started, how sad to see the women's high jump without any Italians, I don't think this has happened since the 1960s. Instead, there is a home athlete, and from the reactions she elicits one can see that Hungarians always remain the most numerous. They will be disappointed by both her and the other Hungarian, in the javelin. They start at 1.75, but the first eliminations are at 1.85 (6, including the Hungarian): Lake, who entered at this height, is saved in the third. At 1.89 there are 19 left and it is clear that 1.92 is likely to be the last height (1.94 would also be in program) and that 1.89 without faults might even be enough. Levchenko and Cunningham are saved in the third. Levchenko is unrecognisable, both physically (a little less thin and with a different hairstyle) and especially in performance: she exits at 1.92. In the end only eight clear 1.92 and 1.89 in the second without previous faults is enough to qualify.

In the javelin we get to the last throw of the first round with a best of 81 metres. But now it is Chopra's turn, with the speaker quoting the number of his followers on Instagram (6.3 million): the javelin goes far, far beyond the qualification line at 83 metres: 88.77. In this group he will be the only direct qualifier, in the second there will be two. It will end with an Indian and a Pakistani in the first two places and two more Indians in the final.

The decathlon continues with the long jump, and the Germans still have a chance to exalt themselves. Neugebauer already does 7.83 in the first, but the third is so long that he too immediately exults: 8.00: In the individual event he would have finished sixth. Booth and Skotheim seem to be at Desenzano levels, while Mayer is clearly under-performing: one wonders if he will bounce back in the shot put. Victor is seventh. At the end of thbeache race, the mascot makes the usual stunt of transforming the pit into a beach, playing with a boy: the first time (London 2017) it was original, now it's trivial

Once the high jump is over, the second group of the javelin and the decathlon SP remain, both of which take place on the opposite side to mine, i.e. on the side of the second bend. I then try to move, wondering if they would let me: no problem, there are no more access controls. I arrive just in time to see Vajdech qualify directly in the javelin. In the decathlon SP, on my side  the B group, the weaketr one, throws:  to see the top group you still need binoculars. However, I see Neugebauer throw well over the 16 metre mark and exult even more than in the long:jump 17.04. First in both LJ and SP for a man at this level it seemed impossible. Mayer retires, and with that it is definitive that France will end the World Championships without medals. Victor is second and moves up to third place.

For the evening session, I had planned to see the decathlon's high jump in course, but then I arrive a little later than expected anyway: when I enter, group A is at 2.05 and there are 7 left, group B at 2.02 and there are 3 left. I see the American Ziemek get injured on his third attempt at 2.05 and I read that Kaul, after clearing 2.02, has given up on continuing: both will not compete in the 400. Skotheim wins with 2.11, Neugebauer stops at 2.02, but remains in the lead.

I arrive at my place with a few minutes to spare before the start of the relays. We start with the men: Italy is in the second heat. We enter the final straight in the lead, Canada seems to be second, but I always fear the return of Great Britain. Instead it is South Africa that comes back, but it is not enough: we win with 37.65, 2/100 less than the USA in the other heat and only 15 more than the Olympic time. Something we dared not remotely dream of.

And if it seemed that the men had done a great result, we had yet to see the women. In the second bend we are clearly third and in the final straight not only we are holding on, but getting closer to second. I look and look to make sure I don't mix it up with another team, but that's us. Given the time of the first (41.59) you can see that we have beaten the Italian record by a lot. and in fact it is 42.14, a record of over half a second!

It is difficult to recover from such an emotion, but the women's triple jump also began, which will offer many more. It started with Jamaican Ricketts' 14.84, which with relays goes almost unnoticed. Bekh's 15.00 goes unnoticed by me, but not by many others: I can tell by the murmur of the audience. When Derkach's turn comes it is already clear that it will be difficult to get into the eight, but her jump seems to be at least over 14 metres, and indeed it is by quite a bit: 14.36. Cestonaro's jump can be seen to be a little shorter, but it is still 14.05. After the first round the third already has 14.84, and there is still Rojas without a result. Rojas' result will come in the second jump, and it will be very disappointing: 14.33. The third will be even worse: 14.26, she barely gets into the eight. This was followed by two fouls, the second by a very small margin and one very long, perhaps first place. On the fifth jump Lamond moves up to third place with 14.90, but still leaves the pit dissatisfied. The sixth jump was the good one: 15.08: from eighth to first. Ricketts also improved with 14.93, but remained fourth. A level we had not been used to for twenty years: with 14.90 (the measure with which Martinez won bronze in 2003) one finished fifth, with 14.87 sixth.

The other field event of the day is the women's javelin (with all the continents represented), which, at least until the end of the triple jump, arouses very little interest: only one throw by the Colombian Ruiz Hurtado stands out, who crosses the 65-metre mark and takes the lead by almost 4 metres. At least for the first three rounds, the level is low; one enters the eight with 58.49. Barber, winner of the last two editions, is seventh, below 60, then improved, but remained seventh. In the fourth round, Latvia's Kocina gets from seventh to second. It came down to the sixth: first Little moved up to third place, ousting Kitaguchi, but then the Japanese athlete's throw went well over the 65-mark: 66.73, gold by over one metre.

Meanwhile, the track programme continued with the semi-finals of the women's 800. In the third there are Mu and Coiro, this time the American does not make a head race and finishes second behind Moraa. Coiro stayed in the group and in the final gave the impression that she could at least finish in the middle. Instead she finished sixth, but with a personal best of 1:59.61. Final with three Americans and two Britons. This was followed by the decathlon's 400, where there were two announced withdrawals and one surprise: the Australian Dubler did not show up without his withdrawal having been announced (and he had finished the high jump regularly) . First the Puerto Rican Owens-Delerme in 46.44, Neugebauer makes no more than 47.99. Warner 47.32.

And we come to the two most eagerly awaited events: the finals of the 200, first women's, then men's. The presentation goes from the outer to the middle lanes, which in turn depends on the outcome of the semi-finals: so Richardson, repechaged, is presented first. Jackson enters the straight ahead of Thomas and Richardson, and that will be the order of finish, only for Jackson's lead to increase: she wins with 21.41, 7/100 off Griffith's record. For a while the Amricans celebrated on one side, the Jamaican on another, then they joined in.

Among the men, Lyles came into the straight with a slight lead, but then increased it. He wins with a 'simple' 19.52, a far cry from the record he had announced. Knighton came second with 19.75, Tebogo third with 19.81: not bad, but after the Diamond League in Monaco more was expected. The fourth (Hughes) is even above 20.

I'm not joining in the celebrations, I'm going out, like almost everyone else here. Tomorrow we start again at 7 a.m. with the marathon, then morning session and evening session

World Athletics Championships in Budapest - Marathon (27-08-2023)

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When I arrive at the point of the route closest to my hotel, I see on the site that at least the first one has already passed at 5 km, which more or less corresponds to the 'outward' passage at that point. Rather than wait for the 'inward' passage (around the 9th km), I prefer to go to yesterday's point, in front of the Opera. Unlike yesterday, however, I'm on the 'inward' side, as each direction of the metro is accessible only from one side of the street. On the stage in front, in addition to yesterday's DJ-set, there is also a violinist, a saxophonist and an opera singer. One sees Italians, Japanese, a Moroccan going back and forth with a big flag, but also flags less common in an athletics competition, such as those of Colombia and Eritrea.

 While I wait for the 'inward' passage of the first lap, which is at the 10 km mark, I look for information on the site, but discover that unlike yesterday it only gives intermediates every 5 km (it will then make an exception for the half marathon). The only source of update between passages would therefore be the screen, provided that it shows the race, which cannot be taken for granted. In the first few kilometres, in fact, it mainly shows interviews and trackside shows: they even went so far as to show a dance as the runners passed by. Even at the 35th km they showed interviews with the public for a while.

 

As the passage of the athletes approached, the announcer informed us that the Mongolian who had gone into a breakaway in the first kilometres had been caught. In fact, as the athletes pass, they are in a group, but it is a much less compact group than the women. Of the Italians I only see, in order, Chiappinelli and Meucci: after a while I realise that Faniel must be ahead, and I check that he is. The Mongolian can already be seen in a crisis, he touches his leg and after a while he will retire.

 

After passing, I try to move to the other side of the street, both to get a better view of the screen and to be ready to take the underground back. I go in the direction I came from, looking for a crossing point: it is shown on the map and what's more, I think I have seen people crossing but cannot find it (when no one is using it, it is not easy to spot). In the meantime, the 'outward' crossing of the second lap arrives (just over the 14th km): the group seems more compact than before. I look for the crossing in the other direction, where further away there was a bridge, and this time I find it.

 

At the 20-kilometre and 24-kilometre passages, the leading group is still over 30, including all three Italians. The gap to the last gradually increases, but nothing like the women yesterday. The only Hungarian, always very much cheered on, passes among the last: he will finish 40th out of 60. The Jordanian, who had been the first to lose contact, slowly recovered positions and at each passage waved to the public and called for applause: in the end he would leave 8 behind.

Shortly after the passage of 24, on the screen I seem to see an Italian in the lead (which is definitely not Meucci) and indeed Chiappinelli has taken the lead at 25 km: the speaker talks about his successes in the steeplechase, from his youth career to the medal at the 2018European Championships. He stays in the lead for more than a kilometre. Soon after, however, it starts to get serious, with kilometres under three minutes. At the 30 km mark there is a leading group of 6, with 4 others close behind (and reading now in names, I note that 2 of the first 4 at the finish were not among the 10). Chiappinelli is slightly detached, Meucci a little more, while Faniel does not pass: after a while it becomes clear that he must have retired, but will not be declared as such until the finish. One sees more and more athletes in crisis, someone stops, one vomits.

 At the end of the third lap, there are three left in the lead: Ugandan Kiplangat and Ethiopians Gebresilasie and Tola. When they pass before me at 34th km, Kiplangat and Gebresilasie are in the lead, with Tola close behind. I can see that Chiappinelli is in a good position, although I can't count it, but Meucci isn't far behind him either. As I said, since then you can't follow the developments well because for a while the screen doesn't show the race and even when it does, it does very tight shots, from which you can't see positions and gaps. At one point the announcers announce that Tola has disappeared from the passages (evidently they had the data of the single km intermediates, which as I write are on the website), so he must have retired.

At the 40 km mark, Kiplangat had a margin of about fifteen seconds on Gebresilasie, while the third, the Israeli Teferi, seemed further back. Surprisingly fourth is an athlete from Lesotho. Chiappinelli is 7th and seems to be making a comeback, I hope he still recovers a few positions, Meucci is 13th. We see an athlete still in a good position stop and then try to restart: he won't make it. I then see on the screen that Teferi overtakes Gebresilasie for silver and Chiappinelli gives way, ending up being overtaken by Meucci: the two finish 10th and 11th. Immediately afterwards comes a Japanese who was fifth at 40 km: so once again Meucci, who with his times in Japan would be one of many and would have no chance of being called up for the national team, leaves all the Japanese behind.

This time, however, as I have no other commitments apart from finishing my luggage, I am staying: I want to enjoy the World Championships to the full and see even the last passagde. There is some doubt as to who is actually the last one, since the website reports athletes who are several kilometres behind, but who officially do not appear to have withdrawn. However, it becomes clear that it is unrealistic that they are still in the race and when whom I assume is the last one passes, I have confirmation of this as he is followed by a car.

 My World Championships end here. I don't know if I will be there at the next ones, being in Tokyo: there were editions where I was looking forward to the next one because I hoped the Italians would bounce back only to find out later that one thought the first edition had gone badly until one had seen the next one. Now I am looking forward to the next edition (but of course, first there are the Olympics) to see the Italians do even better, but knowing that if it was like this time one could be satisfied. In the time I have left before leaving I go to see the exhibition on the history of the WCH, full of interesting memorabilia and evoking memories of all the editions, those seen on TV and those seen live.

Mondiali di atletica a Budapest - Maratona (27-08-2023)

Quando arrivo al punto del percorso più vicino al mio albergo, vedo sul sito che almeno il primo è già passato ai 5 km, che corrisponde più o meno al passaggio “d’andata” in quel punto. Piuttosto che attendere il passaggio “di ritorno” (intorno al 9° km), preferisco andare nel punto di ieri, davanti all’Opera. A differenza di ieri, però, sono dal lato del ritorno, in quanto ciascuna direzione della metro sbocca su un solo lato della strada. Sul palco di fronte, oltre al dj-set di ieri, ci sono anche un violinista, un sassofonista e una cantante lirica. Si vedono italiani, giapponesi, un marocchino che fa avanti e indietro con un bandierone, ma anche bandiere meno comuni in una gara d’atletica, come quelle di Colombia ed Eritrea.

Mentre aspetto il passaggio “di ritorno” del primo giro, che è in corrispondenza del 10° km, cerco informazioni sul sito, ma scopro che a differenza di ieri dà i passaggi solo ogni 5 km (farà poi un’eccezione per la mezza Maratona). L’unica fonte d’aggiornamento tra un passaggio e l’altro sarebbe quindi lo schermo, sempre che faccia vedere la gara, cosa che non si può dare per scontato. Nei primi km, infatti, mostra soprattutto interviste e spettacoli a bordo pista: sono arrivati a inquadrare un balletto mentre i corridori passavano lì davanti. Persino al 35° km per un po’ hanno mostrato interviste con il pubblico.

Mentre si avvicina il passaggio degli atleti, la speaker ci informa che il mongolo che era andato in fuga nei primi chilometri è stato ripreso. Infatti, al passaggio gli atleti sono in gruppo, ma è un gruppo molto più sgranato di quelle delle donne. Degli italiani vedo solo, nell’ordine, Chiappinelli e Meucci: dopo un po’ capisco che Faniel dev’essere davanti, e controllo che è così. Il mongolo lo si vede già in crisi, si tocca la gamba ed effettivamente dopo un po’ si ritirerà.

Dopo il passaggio, provo a spostarmi dall'altro lato della strada, sia per vedere meglio lo schermo, sia per essere pronto a prendere la metropolitana al ritorno. Vado nella direzione da cui sono venuto, cercando un punto di attraversamento: è previsto sulla mappa e per di più mi sembra di aver visto gente attraversare a non lo trovo (quando nessuno lo sta usando, non è facile da individuare). Nel frattempo arriva il passaggio "d'andata" del secondo giro (poco oltre il 14° km): il gruppo sembra più compatto di prima. Cerco l'attraversamento nell'altra direzione, dove più lontano c'era un ponte, e stavolta lo trovo.

Ai passaggi dei 20 e dei 24 chilometri il gruppo di testa è ancora di oltre 30 elementi, tra cui tutti e tre gli italiani. Aumenta gradualmente il distacco degli ultimi, ma niente di paragonabile a quelli delle donne ieri. Passa sempre tra gli ultimi l'unico ungherese, sempre molto incitato: chiuderà 40° su 60. Il giordano che era stato il primo a staccarsi recupera lentamente posizioni e a  ogni passaggio saluta il pubblico e chiama gli applausi: alla fine se ne lascerà alle spalle 8.

Poco dopo il passaggio dei 24, sullo schermo mi sembra di vedere un italiano in testa (che sicuramente non è Meucci) ed effettivamente Chiappinelli è passato in testa ai 25 km: la speaker parla dei suoi successi nelle siepi, dalla carriera giovanile alla medaglia agli Europei 2018. Rimarrà in testa per più di un km. Subito dopo, però, si comincia a fare sul serio, con chilometri sotto i tre minuti. Al passaggio dei 30 km c'è un gruppo di testa di 6, con altri 4 a ridosso (e leggendo adesso i nomi, noto che 2 dei primi 4 all'arrivo non erano tra i 10). Chiappinelli è leggermente staccato, Meucci un po' di più, mente Faniel non passa: dopo un po' si capisce che dev'essersi ritirato, ma non sarà dichiarato tale fino all'arrivo. Si vedono sempre più atleti in crisi, qualcuno si ferma, uno vomita.

Alla fine del terzo giro, sono rimasti in testa in 3: l'ugandese Kiplangat e gli etiopi Gebresilasie e Tola. Quando mi passano davanti al 34° km, ci sono in testa Kiplangat e Gebresilasie, con Tola poco dietro. Vedo che Chiappinelli è in buona posizione, anche se non riesco a contarla, ma anche Meucci non gli è molto dietro. Come dicevo, da allora non si riesce a seguire bene gli sviluppi perché per un po' lo schermo non inquadra la gara e anche quando lo fa, fa inquadrature molto strette, da cui non si capiscono posizioni è distacchi. A un certo punto gli speaker annunciano che Tola è sparito dai passaggi (evidentemente loro avevano i dati dei passaggi ai singoli km, che mentre scrivo si trovano sul sito), quindi si dev'essere ritirato,

Al passaggio dei 40 km, Kiplangat ha un margine di una quindicina di secondi su Gebresilasie, mentre il terzo, l'israeliano Teferi, sembra più indietro. Sorprendentemente quarto un'atleta del Lesotho. Chiappinelli è 7° e sembra in rimonta, spero recuperi ancora qualche posizione, Meucci è 13°. Si vede un'atleta ancora in discreta posizione fermarsi e poi provare a ripartire: non ce la farà ad arrivare. Vedo poi dallo schermo che Teferi supera Gebresilasie per l'argento e Chiappinelli cede, finendo per essere superato da Meucci: i due chiudono 10° e 11°. subito dopo arriva un giapponese che era quinto ai 40 km: quindi ancora una volta Meucci, che coi suoi tempi in Giappone sarebbe uno dei tanti e non avrebbe nessuna possibilità di essere convocato in nazionale, si lascia alle spalle tutti i giapponesi.

Stavolta però, non avendo altri impegni, a parte finire le valigie, rimango: voglio godermi il Mondiale fino in fondo e vedere anche l'ultimo passaggio. C'è qualche dubbio su chi sia effettivamente l'ultimo, visto che il sito segnala atleti in ritardo di parecchi chilometri, ma che ufficialmente non risultano ritirati. Si capisce però che non è realistico che siano ancora in gara e quando passa quello che suppongo sia l'ultimo, ne ho la conferma in quanto è seguito da un'auto.

I miei Mondiali finiscono qui. Non so se ai prossimi ci sarò, essendo a Tokyo: ci sono state edizioni in cui non vedevo l'ora che arrivasse la prossima perché speravo che gli italiani si rifacessero, salvo poi scoprire che uno pensava fosse andata male l'edizione prima fino a quando non aveva visto quella dopo. Adesso non vedo l'ora che venga la prossima edizione (ma naturalmente, prima ci sono le Olimpiadi) per vedere gli italiani fare ancora meglio, ma consapevole che se fosse come stavolta ci si potrebbe accontentare. Nel tempo che mi rimane prima di ripartire vado a vedere la mostra sulla storia dei Mondiali, piena di cimeli interessanti e che mi rievoca i ricordi di tutte le edizioni, quelle viste in TV e quelle viste dal vivo.