Athletics World Championships, the Italy manager: ‘I’m betting on Tamberi and the walkers. Jacobs is a champion’

Antonio La Torre, blue technical director since September 2018, is making the cards for the national team which, from Saturday 19 to Sunday 27, will be at the World Cup in Budapest.

Let’s start with the marchers, who have always been a tricolor mine?

“Gladly: the strikers, with Fortunato, have become three. Francesco Fortunato is back from a season during which he did convincing things, showing great continuity. He has personality, he’s in condition. He will do well. Like Massimo Stano, who avoided the Absolutes only as a precaution. A double challenge awaits him: he must balance his rookie hunger with opponents who will make two races against him, knowing what he is capable of in the finals. He will need to measure the forces well, without raising the bar too much ”.

Then the return of Antonella Palmisano.

“Very welcome: he will be an outsider, but he did everything to be competitive. I remember the European Championships in Berlin 2018. A week before the competition she couldn’t stand: she reached the bronze. Several rivals will be new to her, but in terms of competition…”.

In general, what do you expect?

“The Caribbean and Central America are protagonists of speed, an increasingly emerging Africa in general and a Europe that has flourished again. In summary: a further universalization of athletics. And it’s not putting your hands forward. There are many new protagonists and some of them, from Furlani to Iapichino, are ours. Even thinking about Paris 2024, it will be important to verify how the youngest will interact with the class and temperament of leaders and veterans, from Tamberi downwards. In all, I would like more finalists than Tokyo and Eugene, where we have reached ten”.

“Physically he’s at the top: he did very well on Sunday to avoid racing in the rain”.

“He is the Olympic champion of the 100m, how could I not? He did the impossible to be there. There is no shortage of unknowns related to his forced path, but he is a champion and if his physique supports him, he will pull the rabbit out of the hat ”.

He quoted Furlani and Iapichino…

“Mattia has little to lose: he must release his fresh energies with irreverence. I don’t think an 8.16 will be enough for the podium this time, but we don’t deny that we have found a talent. Larissa has made a clear cut this year and has a knife between her teeth: everyone fears her”.

Who and what else to believe?

“In Weir and Fabbri, in Tortu a finalist in the 200m, in Battocletti, in Crippa who, if he returns to the top eight in the 10,000m, will be as if he were winning a medal in the Arese high school exam. And then in the five relays: I dream of them all in the final, so as to arrive next year at the pre-Olympic in the Bahamas on the wings of enthusiasm”.

“Simonelli in the 110 hurdles: a star could be born”.

Among the absences Vallortigara, Dallavalle, the girls of the 100 hs and the multiple group.

“Elena, after months of trouble, stepped aside with the honesty that distinguishes her. But the real regret, without taking anything away from her, after the European silver and the 4th place in the world in 2022, is above all for Andrea”.

In Great Britain, controversy is raging over some excellent exclusions: Italy has called up all those who were entitled to it and, with a total of 78 athletes, it will have 18 more athletes than Eugene 2022. Was that the case?

“I take responsibility for the choices: some are a recognition of the work of the companies. Budapest, then, is not on the other side of the world. Having said that, some counter-performance will be physiological”.

This time many big Azzurri will compete from the very first weekend: is that an advantage?

“We have grown up, we do not hide: it is indifferent. Feet on the ground and head held high”.