Massimo Stano signs Italian record: ‘I’m back’
Stano enchants in China
In the march in Taicang, Olympic champion Massimo Stano signs the Italian record in the 20-kilometer race: 1h17:26 was the time with which he improved the record he already held from 2019, with 1h17:45.
The Italian of the Fiamme Oro è was second at the finish line with the same time as Chinese Zhang Jun (1h17:26), eighth at the Games, who won the race and was good at catching up on Stano after the Apulian’s break, which lasted a couple of kilometers, starting from 14th. Third was Brazilian world bronze medalist Caio Bonfim with a time of 1h17:44.
For the ’athlete coached by Patrick Parcesepe it was the first ‘twenty’ of the year: the performance, with a progress of nineteen seconds, è more than comforting in view of the seasonal appointments, from the European Championships in Rome to the Paris Olympics. First ten kilometers in 39:22, second in 38:04, before being overwhelmed by the warmth of the Chinese roadside crowd. Taicang continues to bring him good fortune: in 2018 he was third at the World March Team Championships. È the 24th Italian record in a dream winter for Italian athletics.
"I really enjoyed myself,” says Massimo Stano from China, as quoted on the FIDAL website, “I felt good from every point of view, physical and mental. For me è an unexpected record, but maybe it has to come just when you don’t expect it. Above all, I am overjoyed with the sensations, even more than with the Italian record. I found myself again on the 20 kilometers, as it hasn’t happened for a couple of years: Stano è returned. It was a race to check the state of form, and also to regain confidence on this distance".
The reference è to last summer’s withdrawal at the World Championships in Budapest where he then è placed seventh in the 35 km as defending world champion. "I would not have accepted easily to go to the Olympics with the time of last season, 1h20:07, because é not è what I want to go and do lì. Now everything changes. And I also managed without problems to handle unforeseen events, which would have affected me in other situations: a gel that I è dropped at the refueling, an abdominal discomfort that I alleviated with breathing".
