European Athletics Championships in Rome - day 1 (07-06-2024)

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It takes me a little longer than expected to arrive because of the traffic (certainly not due to the European Championships), but in return I find parking slightly closer, and much faster, than when I had come for the tennis. So I arrive at the entrance around 9.30 and I think I will make it to see, if not the start of the competitions (9.35), at least Gerevini's heat (9.49). Instead I find a queue at the entrance that I had never seen, even for football matches: I'll later read that the gates had been opened shortly before and what's more, not all of them are open. One sees Swiss, Finns, British, and a Swede wearing a traditional helmet. The queue flows quite quickly and in about ten minutes I am inside, the backpack check is not even very thorough. This however was only the pre-filtering, then there are the turnstiles, and they too are not all open. The queue is a little less long, but unlike the other one, it flows very slowly: people are starting to get impatient, because there are some people who can't get through the turnstiles. Behind me is an Estonian family with a child who is about the age I was at the time of the other European Championships in Rome (1974): I think how happy I would have been if they had taken me. A Swiss in front of me watches the races on his mobile phone and I think I could do it too: I manage to watch the third heat of the 100hs heptathlon (Gerevini was in the second).

In the end I find out that the problem was that there was a broken turnstile, of course the one where I was queueing, but by moving to the one besides I manage to get in on first attempt. So I'm in at around 10: as expected, the stadium is almost empty, there are a few more people in the Tevere stand towards the end of the straight, while I'm on the start (and therefore the finish) side. I settle nine rows below my seat. I am in a good position for the discus, but I notice that the cage is covering the heptathlon high platform. A little later, I notice that the elevated platform of the extension jumps is very nice, but it covers the four outer lanes of the straight. Fortunately, it is only relevant in the 400, 400hs and relays, and there are none this morning.

 

When I enter only the men's discus is underway, where Alekna made the qualifying measure before I entered: no one else will. Then starts the women's shot put, one of the four races without Italians, which is on the opposite side and I can't see much: I follow distractedly. The first track race I see is the 100hs, having missed the heptathlon. Qualification is swimming-style: only times count. The result will therefore be heavily influenced by the wind, both here and in the following 110hs: Besana and Fofana, fifth and sixth in their heats, will have sixth and seventh times overall respectively. The speaker confuses the nations a little: Slovenia with Slovakia and even Finland with Greece (I think because of the athlete's name). Much better is the English-speaker and also Strati on the sidelines, who makes interviews in Italian, English and Spanish.

Once the hurdles are over, I decide to move to the centre of the grandstand to better watch the women's triple. Next to me is a group of Lithuanians: when someone asks to take a photo with one of them, I realise that it must be Alekna the father. I also meet someone who says that at the World Championships in Budapest he was sitting next to me: I didn't remember him at all. In the triple jump I can see the measurements quite well: I realise that Derkach's jump is good, but I didn't think so much: 14.10, direct qualification. I can afford to follow the rest of the competition distractedly: instead I follow the heptathlon high jump, with Gerevini reaching 1.74 without any problems, and the track events, first the women's 1500, then the men's 800. In the former Cavalli passed, Vissa did not and Zenoni fell, in the latter Pernici seemed out of the running at the start of the final straight, but recovered to second place, while the other Italians passed without any problems. Because of the epilogue of the last heat, I miss Gerevini who clears 1.80 and wins her group, the weaker one, while the other is dominated by Thiam with 1.95: after two events she is third.

There is also the women's discus: I had seen Cà and Osakue hitting the qualification tape in the warm-up and thought that qualification would be a formality for them. Instead it is so only for the Portuguese, while the Italian makes 60.10 in the first round and then does not improve. She closes the pool sixth, and I understand that she is at risk, although the second group seems a little less strong. Halfway through the second round of the second group she is already 12th and I think it's over, the season's leader, Germany's Stenacker, is still out, but in the second round she remains behind, but in the third she closes the story with direct qualification.

In the meantime, there was the men's long jump, where the results were a little less clear than in the triple, but from the roar of the Swiss you could tell that Eheammer had made a big jump. I didn't think so, however: 8.41. Furlani's jump is also immediately clear that it is good, and in fact it is 8.17. The fight for qualification was exciting to the last, with Randazzo taking 12th place in the third with 7.94, but two jumps later he was overtaken by 1 cm. A volunteer comes by for a survey: she asks me my age, where I come from and what ticket I have.

 

I had waited until the end to get some food because I wanted to go to the much-vaunted ‘fan zone’, but what a disappointment! It is perhaps the poorest I have ever seen at such events, especially the food part: just a couple of sandwich shops, nothing comparable to what tennis offers. The only original stand is perhaps that of the virtual reality flight simulator.

So to find some fresh air and write these lines I go to the centre. I get back to the Foro Italico around 6.20 p.m., as the opening ceremony is finishing (which I had never thought of seeing), I look for a good place to watch the race walk, but I wish it was on the side of the stadium, so that I could get in before the finish and the shot put's qualification. Only I don't understand how you get there: not only do they not let you cross (10 minutes before the start of the race!), but the fenced off area is much larger than the course. Just to get to the other side of the fountain I almost had to go back to the entrance. I resign myself to the fact that to get to the side of the stadium I will have to do a whole lap (luckily it is only 1 km), and I plan to do it a little at a time: for the moment I settle in the stretch between the ‘medal plaza’ (i.e. the fountain square) and the Stadio dei Marmi, where there are few people.

 

They start: Palmisano sets the pace, a group of 16 formed, which was reduced to 8 after 4-5 laps. Trapletti stays in the group, Giorgi breaks away. From my position I can see about a third of the course, I catch a glimpse of something as they pass around the Stadio dei Marmi, but of the rest of the course I know nothing: there are no screens, in the square there would be one, but it shows ads. Towards the sixth lap I go towards the Stadio dei Marmi, to begin my lap of the course, but at a certain point it is blocked: so where can I go? I meet many of the evening's protagonists, including Stahl: they let them through to get to the warm-up field. Ordinary spectators, on the other hand, turn the other way: now it is possible, they have reduced the barrier area. So I arrive in the square, and stop until the 10th km, where Palmisano starts to take a bit of an advantage. Then I go to the other side, near the gates of the stadium, and I stop there until the 13th km, as Palmisano by now has made the gap. At this point I go to the turnstiles: this time there is no queue, but on the other hand I have to make many attempts to scan the ticket.

I arrive inside the stadium just before the start of the shot put qualification: it is deserted, there are fewer people than this morning. Just in case it fills up later, I go to my seat, but a steward is suspicious to see me go up so high and points out that the top rows (starting 2-3 above mine) are closed. I follow first from the screen, then live, the epilogue of the race walk, with Trapletti who at the 19th km gets rid of the others and arrives second behind Palmisano. Third place should have belonged to Spain's Garcia Caro, but she stops to celebrate and is fooled by a Ukrainian. The two Italians are interviewed by Howe. In the meantime, the shot put qualification begins: Fabbri immediately settles the formality with a trivial, for him, 21.10, while no one else reached 20.70 for the direct qualification, the last qualifier being Weir with 19.71 on the last throw.

Next up are the women's high jumps qualifications, which I can't see very well as they are behind the discus cage: Vicini, after risking going out at 1.76, does at 1.85, Vallortigara at 1.89. I don't understand how many have cleared 1.89, as they don't give updates and the site server is down. However, I see that they are going on (the qualifier is 1.92): I later find out they were 14. A few people arrive in the south terrace, where there was a promotion for schools: Tamberi comes by to greet them (I know from a colleague of mine). The Tevere also filled up a bit, but although the effect can be deceptive because of the big stadium, the emptiness is depressing. Even more depressing will be later going to get food and not finding a queue.

Having ascertained that the stadium will not fill up, after getting some food I settle more in the centre. I see the discus, a somewhat underperforming competition, where Ceh wins with 68.08 in the second throw and the Austrian whose name I'd better not write fools Alekna and Stahl by coming second with 67.70. In the last throws we can see that there is a good group of both Austrian and Lithuanian fans. I see little of the women's shot èut, which takes place on the other side: another underpergorming race, one got a medal with 18.62, it would have been within reach of the best Chiara Rosa.

On the track there are first the 100 heats, with two Italians who both pass, then the  heptathlon's 200: Gerevini is placed in the weakest heat because she did not run this year and dominates it in 23.81, which is given as her personal best, but in the interview she will specify that it is only her personal best in the heptathlon. It will remain the fourth fastest time overall and she will finish the day sixth. There are many withdrawals, including Johnson-Thompson.

 

It ends with the two finals: first the mixed relay, then the 5000. In the first one, Sito sticks to Sacoor and Polinari, in the second leg, goes to the rope first. Then she was overtaken by Ireland and Belgium, but remained attached. After the third leg, the order is still Ireland-Belgium-Italy, with the others behind: in particular, the gap of Holland seems too much even for Bol, who seems to take it easy for 250 and only in the final gets close. She overtakes Belgium, but not Italy, who finisheds second, behind only Ireland. At that moment it turns out that the Irish fans are really many in all sectors: the Irish flags mix and mingle with the Italian ones. In the 5000, Battocletti remained in second-third position in an ever-thinning group. On the last lap, only she and Grovdal are left, but in the final straight she leaves the Norwegian on the spot and wins by six seconds, setting an Italian record.

As the spectators leave, the speaker reminds them that there are still the medal ceremonies, but I don't know how many stop, certainly not me. It was a two-sided day: exciting in terms of results, since in one day we won more medals than in the entire 2014 edition and the same as in 2018, team events excluded; depressing in terms of the mood and the organisational problems, so much so that I think it dashed my hopes of seeing the World Championships in Rome in my lifetime.