European Athletics Championsips in Rome - Day 6 (12-06-2024)

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For this final evening, I had also planned to see the medal ceremonies before the races, only I have to deal with the evening rush hour traffic, which is even worse than the morning one. So I arrive in the stadium area, and passing by I meet a few athletes as they get off the bus, while the Spanish anthem is heard: so it's tiome of the TJ medal ceremony, which means that I can at most hope to see the last one, that of Gimbo. At the entrance I find a queue that I have never seen before and which, I repeat, you don't find for football matches, but then they open another entrance and it flows quite quickly. I then enter that they are playing the Italian anthem and I barely make it in time to see the finale of the high jump medal ceremony.

Tamberi stands in the square, surrounded by a huge crowd. There is also a French medallist, I think Gogois (triple) posing with the public, I assume that everyone is going towards the turnstiles and so there will be a queue and I think to let some time pass, but then I think that it could be worse later. The queue at the turnstiles is long and it creates a lot of nervousness. The problem is the usual: there is a turnstile that doesn't work properly (of course the one where I am queuing) and no one provides assistance. I too have to make 4-5 attempts to scan my ticket.

 I enter after 25 minutes in the queue. Inside the stadium, I see fewer people than I expected, given the crowd outside: my block is almost empty, while there are more people towards the middle of the stand. I'm tempted to move, seeing that the highlight is all on the other side (pole vault, landing of long jump), but I think it might fill up, and indeed it does : the Tevere will be even fuller than yesterday, the North terrace is almost full, there are a lot of people even in the South terrace and in the finish area of Monte Mario, much less in the rest of the stadium, which however is not as deserted as on other days. There are fewer foreigners than usual: there are a few Belgians, including one behind me, the usual Britons and Norwegians, Irish, especially in the Monte Mario and many French, especially in the terraces, while there seem to be fewer Fiins and Swiss than usual, especially the Swiss, who will anyway be noticed when they have athletes involved.

When I come in, the B-race of the 10,000 is underway and the PV has already started: they are at the first height, 5.35. The race will be won by a Spaniard in 28'24", so the top athletes will have room to race tactically, fifth and sixth two Italians. Shortly afterwards the men's javelin starts: after a couple of throws around 80 metres, Weber does 85.94 and from there I realise that the second tape is not at 85 metres as I thought, but at 90. A race of an average level a little higher than on other occasions, to get into the eight you need more than 81 metres, and also balanced: after the first three throws first three in just over a metre, first eight in 4 metres. A very exciting second half is expected, but nothing happens until the sixth round, when Vadlejch goes close to the 90-metre tape (88.65) and wins

 And we come to the only field event with Italians, the women's long jump. From my position I am absolutely unable to assess the measure, the only way to get an idea is from the reaction of the crowd in the landing zone, and from this you can tell that Iaspichino's first jump is good: in fact it is 6.82. Mihambo kills the competition with a 7.22 in the first jump, but few people realise this at the time (I am among them) as the measure appears on the scoreboard during a track race. Iapichino then improves to 6.84, but after the third jump she is fifth, in a race where with 6.80 one is seventh and with 6.68 is out of the eight. Her jumps continue to arouse positive reactions from the spectators in the area and in fact on the fourth jump she does 6.86, but remains fifth, on the fifth she does 6.90, and is fourth, one centimetre from bronze and silver, on the sixth she does 6.94 and is second. They celebrate by singing the Seven Nations' Army, but it is not over. When German Assani, the last one standing between Iapichino and a medal, jumps, the speaker asks people to clap for her too, but many are not convinced. Eventually many do, although less than for the others. Neither she nor Portugal's De Sousa improve, so silver remains.

It was not, however, the first medal of the day, as in the meantime the track events had begun and we had won another, We had started with the women's 4X400. with the Netherlands leading at the end of the third leg and so the race seemed to be over, with Bol in the anchor leg Instead, Ireland stuck to it and in the final almost seemed to challenge it her. Belgium and Italy followed, coming in 1" behind the Netherlands and setting yet another Italian record: 3:23.40. Moving on to the men's event: Italy was missing Sibilio, his replacement Meli would later say in the interview that he had heard about it ten minutes before. In the first leg Sito remains attached to Sacoor, in the second we take advantage of the weakest leg of Belgium and change in the lead, in the third Belgium is again first, but we remain attached, in the fourth Doom slowly makes the gap and in the final Scotti is challenged by the German, but seems to resist, and so it is: silver by 1/100. The gap to Belgium is 97/100, so probably with Sibilio we would have won.

The two races without Italians followed. First the women's 800, with Hodgkinson leading from start to finish, but at a pace that was not prohibitive, so much so that she won by just 19/100. Then the A-race  of the men's 10,000: the scoreboard did not warn that Crippa and Riva had dropped out and even the announcer only said so after the start. Nevertheless, for a while the scoreboard will give Crippa in eighth place. Very slow start; for 2 km they stayed above 3' per km, then they accelerated a little, but not much, so much so that at the halfway point they were all still in a group and at the ninth km they were still more than half. Final sprint: the Swiss Lobalu wins in 28'.

 

Meanwhile, the pole vault race continues, and everything suggests that it will continue even after the end of the track events. At 5.82 there are still 9 competitors: only Duplantis clears them on first, with his usual disarming ease. Four will make it on second, but I will only see one, Karalis. At 5.87 Duplantis passes and only Karalis clears them (and I miss it again).

We come to the last individual race: 1500. Ingebritsen takes the lead at 600, but he only makes the gap in the final straight, where Arese makes his way up to third place, between two Belgians. It's 23 medals! The two 4X100 remain: in the women's race, Great Britain got off to a strong start with Asher-Smith: victory is never in doubt, although France remains close. The Netherlands and Switzerland fighrt it out for bronze: the former wins, but Switzerland will be later disqualified. Bronze at 42.46, so it would have been difficult but not impossible for Italy. And we are at the grand final: the men's 4X100. Italy is in  lane 8, so I understand that I will not see Jacobs' leg (to be exact, I will only see his head). Melluzzo seems to be off to a good start, but that could be because he only has Greece before him, then when Jacobs comes back into view the lead is already clear, and it will be huge at the start of the final straight, where Tortu increases it again, closing in 37.82. The European Athletics Championships therefore end like the swimming ones, with a relay where Italy starts as the big favourite and dominates.

Actually, the races are not over yet: there are still Karalis and Duplantis in the pole vault. In the meantime, there is another one of those idiotic games that have plagued us during the week, especially in the morning sessions: spectators with deformed faces are framed so as to make them look desperate. Duplantis clears 5.92, then 5.97, a height that is starting to be just barely challenging for him, while Karalis makes an attempt at 5.92, one at 5.97 and one at 6.02, always going very far from cleariing them.

 As the race is decided, I decide to go and not stop for the Swede's record attempts, as tomorrow is a working day (the disadvantages of having the events at home). On the way out I see that the  medal ceremonies have started regularly, the women's 4X400 is underway. I go out with the usual sense of emptiness that comes at the end of an event, but thinking that there are only 45 days to go before leaving for the Olympics