Italy has named a team of 89 athletes for the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 August, part of the inaugural multi-sport European Championships with co-hosts Glasgow.
The team includes their two reigning European champions from Amsterdam two years ago: Gianmarco Tamberi in the high jump and Libania Grenot in the 400m. Grenot will be looking for her third successive title, a feat only achieved thus far by world record-holder Marita Koch between 1978 and 1986.
The team also features their three reigning European U23 champions from Bydgoszcz last July: Yemaneberhan Crippa in the 5000m and 10,000m, Yohannes Chiappinelli in the 3000m steeplechase and Ayomide Folorunso in the 400m hurdles. Crippa has been in especially good form this season, breaking the long-standing Italian U23 records in both the 5000m and 10,000m.
On the track, European U20 champion Filippo Tortu has been named for both the 100m and 4x100m. Tortu famously broke Pietro Mennea’s long-standing Italian record with 9.99 in Madrid last month while their 4x400m team includes 18-year-old Edoardo Scotti who anchored the Italian team to the world U20 title in Tampere on Sunday.
There will also be hopes for medals in the women’s high jump courtesy of world indoor bronze medallist Alessia Trost and former U20 standout Elena Vallortigara who has improved from 1.91m to 1.96m in 2018.
Another medal hope is race-walker Antonella Palmisano, who picked up Italy’s only medal at the World Championships in London last year with bronze in the 20km race walk. Palmisano is fourth on the 2018 European lists with 1:28:41, just behind her teammate Eleonora Giorgi with 1:28:31.
The most experienced member of the 89-strong team is 41-year-old triple jumper Fabrizio Donato who made his debut at the championships sixteen years ago in Munich when he finished fourth. Donato won the gold medal in Helsinki a decade later with a wind-assisted 17.63m.
Daniele Meucci, who won the gold medal in the marathon four years ago in Zurich, has pulled out of the team due to illness.
Click here for the full team.
More information on the 2018 European Championships:
- The Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships will be part of the first multi-sport European Championships along with co-hosts Glasgow.
- It will be a must-watch, must-attend experience that elevates the status of European Champions, uniting existing European Championships to celebrate the highest honour in European sport and celebrating the defining moments that create Champions.
- It is the continent’s ultimate multi-sport event, an 11-day celebration of European sport staged every four years.
- Seven of Europe’s leading sports (athletics, aquatics, rowing, golf, cycling, gymnastics, triathlon) will be brought together for the first edition.
- The European Athletics Championships in Berlin will be staged 7-12 August. The six other sports will be staged in Glasgow through 2-12 August.
- 4500 athletes and 52 nations will compete across the seven sports.
- Potential TV audience of over one billion with millions more across multiple digital platforms.
- Over half a million spectators expected.