Filippo Tortu, begins the journey to Rome

Athletics, summoned

A week of work at the Paolo Rosi Stadium in Rome to prepare for the season’s relay events. Thirty-five are summoned for the sprint meet scheduled from Monday, March 18 to Saturday, March 23 in the capital (18 women, 17 men).

Under the orders of sector head Filippo Di Mulo, the blue groups of the 4×100 and 4×400 will work. Among those in attendance are Tokyo 4×100 Olympic champions Lorenzo Patta, Fausto Desalu and Filippo Tortu, Budapest relay world silver medalist Roberto Rigali, 60 hurdles world silver medalist Lorenzo Simonelli, European indoor 60 champion Samuele Ceccarelli, and 60 60 hurdles world finalist Chituru Ali.

On the women’s side, along with Glasgow’s world indoor 60-meter bronze medalist Zaynab Dosso, the other three Italian record-breakers bronze medalists at the European Championships in Munich and fourth-place finishers at the World Championships in Budapest-Dalia Kaddari, Anna Bongiorni and Alessia Pavese-were also in action. In the 4×400 group, among others, is Italian 400 hurdles record holder Ayomide Folorunso. Next week’s will be the first of a series of meetings ahead of the World Relays in Nassau (Bahamas) scheduled for May 4 and 5: the world event dedicated to the relays è decisive for qualifying for the Paris Olympics, the goal of the five blue quartets.

The World Relays, in fact, put 14 out of 16 available places up for grabs (the remaining two places will be awarded on the basis of world lists). As for the European Championships in Rome, however, Italy è already qualified with the five quartets as the host country.