Home » Tamberi, a year ago the gold in Tokyo in the high jump: “It was my day”

Tamberi, a year ago the gold in Tokyo in the high jump: “It was my day”

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Tamberi, a year ago the gold in Tokyo in the high jump: “It was my day”

Gimbo recalls his golden feat in Tokyo: “I’ll call Barshim, our relationship was strong, now it’s unique. But even Jacobs, our triumphs will remain forever”

Valerio Piccioni

A year ago. The high jump and the 100 meters, Italy took it all in ten minutes. Gimbo Tamberi, is such an anniversary celebrated, celebrated or ignored? “You remember. Friends have already booked me for a night out, impossible not to see each other. It’s only been a year, but what happened has remained in the history of our sport. You feel it’s a strong, very strong memory. Celebrate instead. it’s another story: I’m a person who likes to go forward with goals “.

Does a phone call to Barshim fit?
“Sure, we’ll have a video call for about twenty minutes, we’ll talk as we often do.”

Did your relationship with him change after Tokyo?
“Something strong already united us, but now it has become unique, an alchemy that has strengthened our friendship even more”.

We have been in various schools in recent months to talk about the days of Tokyo and your gesture. Not all the boys have understood it, several have said: I would have fought it to the end.
“But it’s perfectly normal! Even I would have answered the same way and I would not have been able to understand if I had not known what was behind it. We found ourselves in the same story, with the same path and with the same injury and we were so close. . It was enough to look into each other’s eyes to remind us of everything that had brought us to what point. It came automatically, it wasn’t about making a bet at the play station with a friend and then saying ok it’s a draw. There was so much behind that gesture”.

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You haven’t thought about it for a moment.
“It was enough to look into each other’s eyes. And then think about it, deciding otherwise would have betrayed the spirit of our discipline. In the high jump, the one who jumps higher wins, we should have taken off at a lower altitude, the one who had won would have more energy, not what jumped higher “.

She has another golden companion: Marcell Jacobs.
“I’ll hear him too, who forgets our iconic embrace. The one with Mutaz meant something crazy, something beautiful, many people abroad told me. With Marcell it was all ours, all of Italy “.

Apart from the “automatic” moment with Barshim, what do you remember most about that day?
“I could tell you every minute of that day. But if I close my eyes I think about the moment when I wake up after a great sleep. I woke up as if I were another person, I felt it would be my day because I had done everything to find myself there, I had been manic for five years without forgetting anything “.

And when he got to the stadium, what thoughts did he have?
“I take the first step and put out a huge smile on my face: the stadium was empty but it was as if it were full of people. There was so much awareness, I repeat, awareness of having given more than any other person to be there. at best, sacrificing a lot of my life “.

Listen Gimbo, when you have an 80 or 90 form you can give 100, we also saw it at the World Cup where it was certainly not at its best. How you do it?

“Since I have been practicing athletics, it has been my goal, in the difficulty of finding an extra strength. But I tell you the truth, I don’t know if such a thing can be trained”.

Since that day he has experienced a thousand moments, recognitions, encounters, situations. Is there one that you remember more than the others?
“These moments were truly infinite. But the magical ones are those linked to the dearest people. If I think of the phone call from Chiara, my girlfriend, the emotion, the tears, the crying together. ‘But you realize love is there. we did it! ‘. The incredulity for a story in which she was totally involved for the serenity, the strength, the help she gave me in a thousand aspects “.

Then there is the relationship with his father, a coach between separations and mending. You have never hidden the other side of the coin between you.
“Most people have always seen the great harmony between the athlete and the coach. Between father and son it was much more complicated. We had a lot of differences due to our strong characters. But now I find it hard to answer for the future.”

Are the physical troubles of this season over?
“The last big luck: I returned from America positive at Covid and stayed at home for a week. Obviously I didn’t train, I also had three days of high fever. But I quickly negated myself and now, fingers crossed, it seems to me that this rest has done me good for the rectus femoris problem that has affected me in recent months. Let’s see. Before the European Championship, I should do two more races in Hungary and Montecarlo. ”

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But have you ever seen that Tokyo race again?
“It happened just a week ago, when I was blocked by Covid. I saw it all, it had never happened to me. A great emotion”.

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