This has been Leonardo Fabbri’s year so far and the red-hot Italian looks poised to be anointed shot put champion on home soil at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 June.
Fabbri has broken the 22 metre-line in his five outdoor competitions this year and the 27-year-old is tantalisingly close to becoming just the second European shot putter in history to break the 23 metre-line after East Germany’s Ulf Timmermann who still holds the European record with 23.06m.
After opening his outdoor campaign with a put of 22.88m, Fabbri went even further in his next competition, launching a cannonball which landed at 22.95m to break Alessandro Andrei’s legendary and long-standing Italian record which dated back to 1987 by four centimetres.
Historically, Fabbri now sits fifth on the world all-time list behind the American trio of Ryan Crouser (23.56m), Joe Kovacs (23.23m) and Randy Barnes (23.12m) and the aforementioned Timmermann (23.06m).
“I'm really happy, I saw my coach Paolo Dal Soglio [the 1996 European indoor champion] cry and I cried too. Crazy stuff! For me Alessandro Andrei means everything, if I'm here it's thanks to him,” said the gregarious Fabbri after gaining ownership of the Italian record last month.
If Fabbri is crowned European champion, he will go one step further than his idol Andrei who won silver in the same stadium at the 1987 World Athletics Championships. And he would also become the first ever Italian to be crowned shot put champion in European Athletics Championships history.
There is also the plausible prospect of an Italian one-two in the shot put with reigning European indoor champion Zane Weir also representing L’Azzurri in Rome. But the one caveat is Weir - who is also capable of throwing in excess of 22 metres - injured his ankle in training last month, although he has revealed on social media that his recovery and rehabilitation is going well.
The biggest challenger to the Italian tandem will be the reigning champion Filip Mihaljevic from Croatia who opened his summer season with a mark of 21.71m - only 23 centimetre shy of his national record.
The ‘Big Three’ to clash in the discus in Rome
The men’s discus could be one of the highlights of Roma 2024 and there is every possibility we could witness the first ever 70 metre-plus throw in the history of the European Athletics Championships.
The championship record belongs to Mykolas Alekna who capped his breakthrough season two years ago by winning gold in Munich 2022 with 69.78m at the age of 19 to become the youngest ever gold medallist in a throwing event in European Athletics Championships history - a feat which saw him named 2022 men’s Rising Star at the Golden Tracks award ceremony.
And the Lithuanian achieved the dizzying feat of breaking the world record in April - the longest standing men’s world record on the books - with 74.35m in admittedly wind favourable conditions in Ramona, Oklahoma to prise the record away from East Germany’s Jurgen Schult’s whose previous record of 74.08m had stood since 1986.
In his first competition since breaking the world record, Alekna produced another excellent mark of 70.70m for victory in the Marrakech Diamond League against most of his main rivals including Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl - who just needs the European title to complete the set - and 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh who initially broke the championship record in qualifying in Munich 2022 before having to settle for silver in the final behind Alekna.
Discus throwing is very much part of the Alekna DNA. His father Virgilijus won the European title in 2006 and Mykolas will be joined in Rome by his brother Martynas who has a season’s best of 66.59m and could very possibly challenge for a place in a final alongside his precocious younger sibling.
Strong opposition awaits reigning champions Nowicki and Weber
Reigning champion Wojciech Nowicki and Pawel Fajdek have dominated the hammer over the past decade but this Polish hegemony could be ended by a strong cast of contenders in Rome.
Mykhaylo Kokhan leads the 2024 European list with 80.76m and after a brace of near misses in major events, the Ukrainian looks poised to win his first senior medal after a prestigious age-group career which has seen him win European U18, U20 and U23 titles.
Hungary’s world bronze medallist Bence Halasz is another leading challenger but a less familiar name who has emerged as a prospective medal candidate in recent weeks is France’s Yann Chaussinand who smashed his lifetime best with 79.88m in Tomblaine last weekend to defeat a field including both Nowicki and Fajdek.
Julian Weber won an emotional gold medal in the javelin two years ago and the German will be looking to retain his title on away turf with the silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch from Czechia expected to be his main rival again.
But an impressive and emerging new generation of European javelin throwers will also be on show in Rome this year including Weber’s 19-year-old teammate Max Dehning who produced a breakthrough early season throw of 90.20m - which remains the world lead - to break Steve Backley’s European U23 record.
Ukraine’s Artur Felfner and Hungary’s Gyorgy Herczeg will also be on the search for their first senior medals after winning the European U20 and U23 titles respectively last year.
Steven Mills for European Athletics