Thanks to an extraordinary last kilometre, Nadia Battocletti wins the medal silver in the 10 thousand meters. The Italian athlete also signs the Italian record. It is the 35th medal for Italy at the Paris Olympics.
After having almost won a medal in the 5,000 metres, the middle-distance runner from Trentino won second place in the 10,000 metres, with a time of 30:43.35, just 10 cents behind the Kenyan Olympic champion BeatriceChebet (30:43.25). Behind her, the European champion of the 5 and 10 thousand, the Dutch Sifan Hassan (30:44.12). It was only the fourth time that the Italian athlete ran the 10,000 meters.
“I arrived at the Olympics with the desire to learn a lot and put me to the testmy focus was the 5 thousand. In the last few weeks I have accusedpain and I reduced the load. This was my fourth race in the 10,000 meters, the approach was not easy, because I really had a lot of discomfort and a lot of pain”, he declared to the microphone of Raisport. “Dad (Giuliano, his coach, ed.) told me to stop, not to overdo it for my health. But I I wanted to have some more funI entered the field with a smile and a lot of lightness and carefree, the stadium imploded. The warm-up didn’t go as I had hoped, I felt tendon pain. They put a tape on me that with each lap came off more and more and ended up under my shoe,” he added. “In the 5,000 I understood that when they sprint hard they don’t always keep up this pace, so in the last 500 meters I kept my eyes open and said ‘don’t get away from me now,” he continued. “They told me that the Olympics were difficult but I like difficult things. Now I’m still in fibrillation, the last 100 meters were mind blowingI followed the fastest athlete and kept to the inside lane so as not to be overtaken,” he concluded.
