Two days of competition out of a total of six and Italy with ten medals, five of them gold, is all alone in first place in the medal table of the XXVI European Championships in Rome, outclassing every opponent. Road, track and platforms, outside and inside the Olympic stadium, are the land of successes and very important results for Italian athletics a month and a half away from the 2024 highlight, the Paris Olympics.

We already won ten medals, five gold, four silver and one bronze. Second is the Netherlands with just three, one of each color, third is France with two. The evening of June 8, 2024, will remain etched in the annals of Italian sports, somewhat like that of August 1, 2021, when in Tokyo, Marcell Jacobs and Gianmarco Tamberi won Olympic gold in the 100 meters and high jump.

An evening that in 42 minutes gave athletics as many as three golds for a total of six medals in one evening: a 'momentous night' that has never previously occurred in history. Opening the evening was Francesco Fortunato's bronze in the 20-kilometer march.

The first gold of the evening came from Leonardo Fabbri and Lorenzo Simonelli: the Florentine thrower, in fact, managed to throw his weight to 22.45 meters, a measurement that allows him to put the crown of European champion on his head. "Now, however, I want to beat the Americans, in a great competition. And I'm still not at the top, I have to keep working and have confidence,” Fabbri (reigning vice world champion) said after the race alluding also to the Paris Games.

In the 110 hurdles, Roman Lorenzo Simonelli, already the author of an excellent performance in the semifinals, beats everyone by running in 13"05, leading from start to finish. His is the second world time of the year, and the new Italian record, and propels him toward the Paris Games. For him, a 22-year-old born in Tanzania but raised in the Italian capital where he lives, it is especially good to have won at home.

A champion in behavior as well, despite his very young age. "It was the best race of my life. You can do much better, with time and working well these aspects will come. Today was a great test, we need to continue on this path,” his words immediately after winning silver.

Then the speed. Marcell Jacobs took gold in the men's 100 meters at the European Championships in Rome. As predicted on the eve of the event Jacobs did not think so much about the time (10"02), but only about getting ahead of everyone and confirming the title he held. The Olympic champion thus took one more step toward the Paris appointment.

Then Jacobs also had a thought for teammate Chituru Ali: “I've been saying for years that Ali will run strong. I am very happy, we both wanted medals we will play for the future." And it was Ali who made Jacobs' victory even better. A second place that has the flavor of being only a first, small step. Chituru Ali, in fact, is setting no limits because at the Olympics he wants to do “something incredible.”