Filippo Tortu, super duel with Samuele Ceccarelli

The Grifone Meeting in Asti is gearing up for a challenge between two top blue medalists in the 100 meters. On Thursday, May 23, Olympic relay champion Filippo Tortu and European indoor 60 champion Samuele Ceccarelli, both with their sights set on the European Championships in Rome and the Paris Olympics, will face off on the Piedmont track.

For Tortu (Fiamme Gialle), it will be his fourth overall season outing in the 100 meters after those in Gainesville (10.15) and Clermont (windy 10.11, regular 10.20) during his internship in the United States. For Ceccarelli (Fiamme Oro), on the other hand, it will be his season debut in the 100 and the first test after a change in technical guidance since he began training with former Italian sprinter Maurizio Checcucci.

Tortu and Ceccarelli shared in last June the relay experience at the European Team Championships in Chorzow and in July the one in Grosseto, which was decisive for the qualification to the World Championships where the blue quartet (with Pippo in the last fraction and Cecca as reserve) would be d’silver a month later in Budapest.

Now they meet again as rivals, albeit with different ambitions and paths: for Tortu, the first Italian under 10 seconds in history (9.99 in Madrid in 2018), the 100 meters represent a stepping stone toward the 200 at the European Championships and the Games, while for Ceccarelli (personal best of 10.13 at the Golden Gala in Florence 2023) they are an opportunity to turn over a new leaf after the opaque indoor season and to relaunch himself ahead of the year³’s events. Also announced at the start are Cameroonian Emmanuel Eseme (9.96), Portuguese André Prazeres (10.17) and Dominican Franquelo Perez (10.18). The full cast will be unveiled in the coming days, but the anticipation, on the platform, è especially for the weight duel between Leonardo Fabbri (Aeronautica), a mind-blowing 22.88 in Modena on May 1°, and Zane Weir (Fiamme Gialle) who debuted with 21.93.