The blue relays do not stop giving emotions. At the U20 World Championships in Nairobi (Kenya) the men’s 4×100 and 4×400 finish the world championship final: the first with the super time trial of 39”56, six hundredths from the national category record; the seconds with the seventh time. More than fourth place in the battery (the first three relays went directly), for Stefano Grendene, Francesco Pernici, Masresha Costa and Tommaso Boninti the time trial of 3’09”71 is decisive, the repechage time that gives the Italians the pass for the ‘final act today at 17.10 Italian.
The driver of the Unione Giovane Biella, as well as in the mixed 4×400, was the first to go. «I like to get out of the starting blocks and then pass the baton – says the nineteen year old from Candelo -. I raced in 47”37 changing the race strategy and it worked ».
The second battery is the fastest with Kenya to stop the hands on a time of 3’05”77, followed by Jamaica (3’05”82) and Botswana (3’06”33). Immediately afterwards, in the general summary, the blue opponents of the first round are placed, namely Nigeria (3’06”70), Ecuador (3’06”94) and Poland (3’09”59). On the final day, the Italian national team will field four out of four relays in the races that award medals, after having already hit the final (sixth place) with the mixed 4×400 relay, in which Grendene was one of the protagonists. Today Grendene and his teammates will race in the first lane. «It doesn’t change much and I don’t think about it – he concludes -. I think Lorenzo Benati will be back with us (yesterday in sixth place in the individual final on 400 with a time of 46”06, his new personal). The podium? All the best nations have run without their strongest athletes, so it will be very difficult to get into the top three. Personally I’m happy: I was aiming to improve and I managed it race after race, so it’s very good like this. The temperature has risen, but it was fine ».