Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
Italy continues to collect medals (23 today), and is targeting the Bari 1997 record (193, six to go), but the star of the day at the Mediterranean Games is Gimbo Tamberi. Who does not betray expectations by bringing home the only gold that was missing from his rich list of successes. The Valente stadium in Taranto was all for him and acclaimed the jumper from the Marche region as soon as he arrived on the track. Anyone who thought that the fresh European high jump champion could skip the event due to a tight calendar that will see him involved in the Diamond League finals scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Brussels, must think again
. Tamberi honors his commitment and easily wins a race that is never in question. Gimbo debuts with a 2.15. Then he jumps 2.25, just enough to overtake the Greek Merlos who stops at 2.19. At that point – with the gold already on his chest – he attempts the seasonal world record at 2.35 asking for the public’s help with broad gestures, as if he were an orchestra conductor, but fails the canonical three attempts. Another Italian Cristiano Falocchi also climbs onto the podium, taking bronze.
Tamberi’s is the fourth gold of a day which gives Italy 23 medals for a total total that rises to 187 titles. Bari’s record of 193 medals is within reach and will in all likelihood be surpassed tomorrow (even if in Bari there were more 76 gold medals compared to the current 62). In the medal table, the Azzurri are ahead of Türkiye, which follows behind with 90 podiums.
The other gold medals of the day come from weightlifting with Giulia Miserendino, 69 kg category. By Nicholas James Ponzio in the shot put, and by Chiara Erika Saraceni in the triple jump. Ponzio wins with a time of 21.21 ahead of the Frenchman Mallagi and the Egyptian Khalifa.
Saraceni skips the mark of 14.21 ahead of the Serbians Spanovic and Mitrovic. Seven silver medals, three coming from karate and brought home by Veronica Brunori in the 55 kg, Erminia Perfetto in the 50 kg and Silvia Semeraro in the 68 kg. Two from the 3×3 of basketball where both men and women lost to Spain in the final; one from rowing, with the light mixed doubles of Niccolò Gandola and Elena Sali, one from athletics with Alessandra Bonora in the 400 metres. Rain of bronzes today, eleven of them.
Two come from rowing, Luca Borgonovo earns them in the men’s lightweight singles and the mixed pair made up of Leonardo Tedoldi and Irene Gattiglia. Three from karate with Daniele De Vivo in the 75 kg; Alessandra Mangicapra in the 61 kg and Luca Maresca in the 67 kg. Double in weightlifting for Cristiano Ficco who won bronze in both the clean and clean snatch, 85 kg category. Bronze also for Sofia Tonelli in artistic gymnastics.
And in athletics for Alice Mangione in the women’s 400 meters and Lorenzo Benati in the men’s 400. Among the disappointments of the day were Pietro Arese’s fourth place in the 1500 meters and Filippo Tortu, one of the Italian standard-bearers, who came fourth in his heat but was fished out and will still be in the final in the 200 meters tomorrow. Tomorrow athletics will once again be the protagonist. For Italy, which today surpassed the result of Pescara 2009 (176 titles) in the medal table, this is the opportunity to break another record.