Larissa Iapichino, first jumps ahead to Florence

Larissa Iapichino in Greece

Larissa Iapichino on the piste again. The Italian jumper’s outdoor season kicks off after the splendid silver won at the European Indoor Championships and when the time for the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala in Florence is now getting closer and closer. The 20-year-old jumper for the Yellow Flames will compete in the long jump on Wednesday, May 24, at the Kallithea meeting in suburban Athens.

A trip abroad to return to action just over a week before the long-awaited June 2 meeting at Ridolfi Stadium in front of her home crowd. In her eyes there is still the spectacular final in Istanbul, in early March, where the daughter of the art coached by her father Gianni jumped to an Italian indoor record of 6.97, surpassing her mother Fiona May’s record, at the last jump, demonstrating an extraordinary competitive temperament in the confrontation with the best in Europe. In Greece she will start again with a challenge that will see her opposing one of the expected opponents also in the Italian leg of the Diamond League, Sweden’s Khaddi Sagnia, who boasts a personal best of 6.95 and was seventh at the Euroindoors after placing sixth at the World Championships in Oregon. Then there will be Romania’s Alina Rotaru-Kottmann, fifth in Istanbul, as well as Cyprus’ Filippa Fotopoulou-Kviten and Greece’s Vasiliki Chaitidou.