Massimo Stano won the gold medal in the 35 km walk at the World Athletics Championships. A gold that Italy had been missing from the World Cup for almost twenty years. From the Olympic gold in the 20 km to the world gold in the 35 km, Stano is the new reality of the march.
The blue walker after the Tokyo Olympic gold in the 20 km, also triumphs at the World Championships in Eugene, this time in the new distance of the 35 km, at the end of an amazing race, completed with the Italian record of 2h23: 14 and with a final forcing devastating in the last five kilometers (partial of 19:50), a stretch in which he detaches all the opponents who had remained in the group with him in the first thirty. The Japanese who started from seasonal world leader Masatora Kawano folded in the last kilometer, silver in 2h23: 15, bronze to the Swedish Perseus Karlstrom (2h23: 44).
Italy returns to the top step of the podium at the outdoor World Championships after nineteen years: many have passed from Giuseppe Gibilisco’s gold in the auction in Paris 2003. The 30-year-old from Bari from Palo del Colle, trained by Patrizio Parcesepe, is the sixth world title for the Azzurri in the march after those of Maurizio Damilano (1987 and 1991) and Michele Didoni (1995) in the 20 km, Anna Rita Sidoti in the 10,000 (1997) and Ivano Brugnetti in the 50 km (1999).
That of the Apulian is the second Eugene World Cup medal for Italy, after the bronze in the high jump of Elena Vallortigara.