Mattia Furlani flies to 8.23 and wins in Ostrava
Mattia Furlani flies to 8.23 and wins in Ostrava
Fly already, Mattia Furlani. In his season debut, the Paris Olympic bronze medalist triumphs in the long jump event at the Ostrava meeting, with an all-time-best measurement of 8.23, equaling Swedish Montler's best performance of the year.
Very fast: the Blue of the Fiamme Oro already finds the feeling with the technical novelties introduced in the winter, namely the new 18-step run-up (two more than in the past) and hits a practically perfect platform in the best of the six jumps, the fifth, leaping into the lead of the competition, after having already placed an 8.00 in the fourth round. The initial three jumps (nulls) were enough to take her measure, then the world Rising Star (20 years to be turned on Friday) spread her wings and there was nothing for rivals Bozhidar Saraboyukov (Bulgaria, 8.12), Thobias Montler (Sweden, 8.01) and Gerson Baldé (Portugal, 7.90) to do. È the best career debut for the Rieti native coached by mom-coach Khaty Seck, who last year, in the three-medal season (Glasgow, Rome, Paris), had started from 8.08 in Stockholm.
Furlani, also the author of a pair of decidedly promising nulls in terms of potential measurements, è already only fifteen centimeters away from the personal best of 8.38 hit at the European Championships at the Olympic Stadium in Rome last June, and eleven centimeters from the best indoor performance of 8.34 jumped last winter in Ancona. Scheduled is another Gold stop on the World Indoor Tour, Feb. 16 in Torun, Poland, for the first face-off of the year with Greek all-around champion Miltiadis Tentoglou, on the way to the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (March 6-9) and the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing (March 21-23), the double international event of the indoor season.
In the third competition of the season, here is the first +21 meters in the weight for Zane Weir (Fiamme Gialle), who grabs the success in the Czech meeting with full merit, offering signs of growth: fourth throw of 21.39 and two other almost similar measures (21.38 and 21.29), all higher than those of the second place finisher, Romanian Andrei Toader (21.21) and the third place of the U.S. Roger Steen (21.09). Leonardo Fabbri (Aeronautica), still running in after the training period in South Africa, did not take off on his debut: only fifth with 20.65, on the last run, in a competition with four nulls and a 20.23. On Saturday it is straight back to the platform in Lodz, Poland, to extend the range.
