During the Italian night, the Italian cycling team put the gold medal of the women’s pursuit at the Track Cycling World Championships around its neck, taking place in the Penalolen Velodrome in Santiago de Chile. Martina Fidanza, Martina Alzini, Chiara Consonni, Federica Venturelli and Vittoria Guazzini thus brought the world title back to Italy three years after the first ever victory, which arrived in 2022. They did so at the end of a vibrant race and for nothing the outcome was a foregone conclusion, unlike what it might have seemed after the qualifying, in which the Italians had achieved the best time. In today’s first round Germany (4:09.059) overtook Great Britain (4:10.736) while the Italians, with Chiara Consonni replacing Martina Alzini, got rid of Australia quite easily with a time of 4:11.101. The Germans’ timing (the best time at the end of the tournament) called everything into question. The final, then, saw Italy behind in the first kilometre, which took the lead in the central part, before losing tenths only in the last 500 metres, bringing home a success which also moves the medal table of these World Cups.
Final time for Italy 4:09.569, Germany finished in 4:09.951, bronze for Great Britain. This is the second overall title, after the historic victory in 2022 at the Paris World Championships. Last year the “rocket girls”, however, took bronze. Finally, it should be remembered that there was only Marco Villa guiding the girls on the track, who shares responsibility for the sector with Diego Bragato, who remained in Italy for the birth of his daughter: “I want to thank Bragato – said Villa at the end of the race – who is the reference technician, together with myself for this specialty. We work very well together, in complete harmony. He wasn’t here today because he has just become a father: this victory is also for him, for his wife and for their girl”. The Italians were very satisfied. For Vittoria Guazzini: “It was an incredible emotion. Maybe at the time, when I was on the track, I didn’t fully enjoy it because I was really at full capacity. But it was needed, we believed in it. We wanted this result very much and, from a certain point of the season onwards, we sat there with our technicians: we decided together on the days on which to meet, no one ever held back, we all did it with a lot of will. And today we are here to celebrate”.