 |
| Italian triple jumper Fabrizio Donato is set to delight his home crowd at the 12th Primo Nebiolo Memorial meeting in Torino on Friday. |
The triple jump contests look like they will be among the highlights of the 12th Primo Nebiolo Memorial meeting, a European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meeting, in Torino on Friday.
The appearance of Italian medallists from the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in March, Fabrizio Donato and Simona La Mantia, is sure to delight the home crowd.
Donato, who won the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medal, contributed to one of the greatest triple jump contests ever in Paris.
In the second round, he bounded out to a national record of 17.70m but it only spurred France’s Teddy Tamgho to produce a world indoor record of 17.92m.
Donato then improved further in the fourth round to 17.73m but still had to settle for the silver medal behind the phenomenal Frenchman.
He opened his season two weeks ago at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Rome, when he finished a more modest seventh with 16.77m.
The event in Torino will also see the return to action of Portugal’s Olympic Games gold medallist Nelson ‰vora.
'The goal of Nelson is, after a short break due to injury, is to test his fitness and gain confidence for future events. Nelson feels good, but it is difficult to say what he’s going to do because he has not competed for some time, 'said his coach João Ganso earlier this week.
‰vora, who also won the 2007 world title, has struggled with a variety of injuries since the end of 2009.
He only jumped once last year but competed three times indoors this winter in his main event before an untimely foot injury a week before the European Athletics Indoor Championships wrecked his plans to participate in Paris.
La Mantia won in the French capital and she will face one of her main rivals from that competition, Slovakia’s Dana Veldáková.
Veldáková, who celebrated her 30th birthday on Sunday, won the bronze in Paris. Also in Torino will be Jamaica’s 2005 world champion Trecia Smith.
The high jump could be very interesting with Russia’s 2011 world-leader Aleksey Dmitrik fresh from his 2.35m personal best in the Spanish city of Huelva last week. Greece’s Kostadinos Baniotis and Italy’s Marco Fassinotti, fourth and sixth at this year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships, will also be in the competition.
Some great hammer throwing is expected from Russia’s Aleksey Zagorniy, who leads the world with 81.73m.
In-form home star Nicola Vizzoni, the 2010 European Athletics Championships silver medallist, also went over 80 metres last weekend with a throw of 80.29m in Florence, his best result since 2001, and he will be looking to impress again.
Germany’s 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Linda Stahl will also throw in Torino, although she has struggled to find her form this season and has yet to go over 60 metres.
Spain’s 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships1500m gold medallist Juan Carlos Higuero will run over the same distance while the men’s 110m hurdles will be graced by the presence of Cuba’s world record holder Dayron Robles.
The Torino meeting is the second of nine European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings in 2011.
Further details of all the 2011 European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings can be found here.
http://www.european-athletics.org/european-athletics-outdoor-premium-meetings-2011.html