Pietro Riva won the silver medal in the marathon of the European Championships which will end today in Birmingham. The Italian reached the finish line after 2 hours 19’18, just seven seconds behind the German Amanal Petros who set the Championship record in 2 hours 09’11. Bronze to the Israeli Gashau Ayale (2 hours 09’21). Riva, 29 years old from Alba in the province of Cuneo, was the protagonist of a race that was always on the attack, always in the top positions. For Pietro, a student of the Olympic marathon champion in Athens 2004 Stefano Baldini, this is the second medal at a continental event after the silver in the half marathon of the Rome 2024 edition.
The representative of the Fiamme Oro made the difference in the final kilometers when he increased the pace, leaving his companions from the long breakaway behind. A crescendo finish for the Italian considering that he finished just seven seconds behind Petros, bronze two years ago in the half in Rome and world championship silver last year in Tokyo. The 31-year-old Teutonic runner is originally from Eritrea and has lived in Germany since he was 16 (in 2012 he was hosted as an asylum seeker in Bielefeld). In 2015, Riva won the European junior 10,000 meters title with a formidable final sprint. At the beginning of 2020 he moved to Rubiera to follow Baldini’s programming.
With the arrival of Giovanna Epis 21. in the women’s marathon at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, a medal for Italy in the team classification (which considers the sum of all the times of the participants by nationality) is certain. The gold goes to Great Britain.