European indoor championships, Italy closes with 3 golds, Zaynab Dosso wins 60 meters
European indoor, Italy closes with 3 golds, Zaynab Dosso wins 60 meters
It took a sprint queen and her smile to close out the European indoor track and field championships in celebration. Zaynab Dosso ran with legs, head and heart those 60 meters that in the Alpedoorn stadium gave her the gold and handed Italy its third title in the indoor event.
After the show on the platform with Larissa Iapichino in the long and Andy Diaz in the triple, the sprinter born in the Ivory Coast 25 years ago but raised in the province of Emilia Romagna sprinted in 7.01, improving her Italian record by a hundredth, going for the most valuable medal with the best time of the year. A super sprint to beat defending champion Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland, second in 7.02, while finishing third is Patrizia van der Weken of Luxembourg. Europe's fastest woman è Dosso, already an indoor rainbow bronze medalist and also a European bronze medalist in the 100 outdoors.
"I am happy, I wanted it and I conquered it – the words of the sprinter, for friends 'Za' but her name means 'wisdom' who arrived in Italy in 2009 from Abidjan joining her family who moved there in 2002 and acquired citizenship in 2016 -. It was not easy with three shifts so close together, all this è the result of a great teamwork that is in fact giving great results. I am very resilient, from the day I moved to Rome (in 2021 coached by Giorgio Frinolli ed), now when I enter the track the goal è clear, every day I grow and mature. I wanted this gold and I won it. The future? Let us continue to have fun, and be strong in the head. I rode all the fears I had on the track and now I don't have them anymore.
A day, the final one, that had registered disappointment in the weight: a bad day for the Azzurri in fact, who arrived instead with three medal athletes. In the end they all finished very far from the podium, sixth Nick Ponzio (20.26) and eighth defending champion Zane Weir (19.57) after Leonardo Fabbri even failed the morning qualification. One step away from a medal in the 800 meters was Eloisa Coiro, fourth and on a tear in 2:02.59, and the same placing for Catalin Tecuceanu with 1:45.57, seven and eleven hundredths away from bronze, respectively.
Italy finishes second in the medal table: 3 golds, 1 silver (Mattia Furlani, star of the long) and 2 bronzes (Andrea Dallavalle in the triple and 19-year-old Matteo Sioli in the high), equaling the best-ever placing achieved in 2007 in Birmingham, behind the hosts Holland (7 golds and 2 silvers). For the third time there are three blue victories, following those of 1982 and 2007. And he says he is "very satisfied" the president of Fidal, Stefano Mei: "The resources invested in the area bear fruit. There'è was the counter-performance of the throwers, bad day for them. But I am happy with the results we are getting". In two weeks the world indoor championships in China.
