Filippo Tortu sheds light on his injury

The words of Filippo Tortu

Mission accomplished: the Italian 4×100 team secures qualification for the World Championships in Budapest by running 38.04 in Grosseto, thanks to the quartet composed of Roberto Rigali, Filippo Tortu, Lorenzo Patta and Samuele Ceccarelli, an unprecedented lineup capable of running the third fastest time ever for the Italian relay team, lower only than the two times run in Tokyo during the final (37.50) and the Olympic battery (37.95). Italy, clearly improving on the 38.38 it ran in May, bypasses five national teams in one fell swoop on the Road To Budapest and signs the second repechage time (out of 8), having the reasonable certainty of not being out of the eight qualifiers on the July 30 date. At the end, moments of apprehension for Tortu, who was left on the ground sore in one arm and then got up after a few minutes. From an under-23 perspective, there is another best Italian performance in the category to report after last Saturday’s in Espoo: three-quarters of the European U23 champion team (Eric Marek, Matteo Melluzzo, Marco Ricci), with the inclusion of Lorenzo Simonelli in the last fraction, expressed themselves in 38.76 less than a week after the 38.92 all-gold. Third place for Malta’s quartet with 40.76.

“It went even better than expected – the words of Roberto Rigali – considering that with Filippo Tortu I didn’t change so many times. But we found each other right away and it’s also the result of many meets, which started five years ago, so even if we don’t try so many times we can understand what our partner is looking for.” First time in the third fraction for Olympic champion Lorenzo Patta: “I’ve been dreaming of doing it for a while, and I’m really happy for a result we’ve been waiting for a long time and it’s finally here. Happy to have raced it here, in Grosseto, at our home.”

Then the roar of the crowd to rejoice with Samuele Ceccarelli at the finish: “Really a show! We managed to show what we can be worth and what the group can do. It is the fruit of the work with the technical sector of the Federation, always attentive to the needs of the athletes, but also of the fellowship between us, who joke and tease each other, but when it is time to run we are focused and respond present to give our best.” “We tried, wanted and dreamed so much about this World Cup qualification,” Filippo Tortu says in a social post, “that when I found out we had made it, I cheered like never before in my life … maybe too much, because my shoulder came out from the exultation. It hurts, but it hurts less when I think about going to Budapest! Thank you guys, for what we conquered and for the sense of belonging to this jersey that we show together every time.”