Gabriele Targhetta’s Achievement: Italy Wins a Medal at the World Championships for the First Time in Over a Century

Gabriele Targhetta is making history in Italian artistic gymnastics: the 20-year-old Italian athlete claimed the title of world runner-up on the pommel horse—a medal Italy hadn’t won at the World Championships in 113 years.

The gymnast from Veneto, who had won the European title in August, claimed a splendid silver medal in the final of the World Championships in Rotterdam with a score of 15.233 points, finishing behind only 19-year-old Armenian Hamlet Manukyan, who took first place with 15.300. The bronze medal went to another Armenian, Mamikon Khachatryan.

The Fiamme Oro athlete is thrilled with his second-place finish: “I still have to process what happened; I did everything exactly as I wanted to, in a packed arena, and even improved on my performance from Zagreb. I knew the competition would be very tough, with a legend like Japan’s Hashimoto and athletes who have won Olympic medals on the pommel horse.”

“I enjoyed it; I waited until the very end, until Manukyan, who is so, so strong. He and Khachatryan push me to always give my all and to increase the difficulty. Right now, I’m living a dream,” according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.