The third day of the UEC Track Juniors and U23 European Championships was dedicated to sprint and time trial disciplines. Italy dominated almost completely all the finals. The only one that didn’t win was the one where there was no italian athlete. There were some great performances by the athletes of the “azzurra” team.
Italy continues to be one of the most prominent teams at the Sangalhos velodrome. In the first final of the day, Matteo Bianchi put in a phenomenal time to win the European title in the 1 kilometer time trial in under-23: 1:00.911 minutes. The silver medal went to the german Anton Höhne (1:01,316), while the British Hayden Norris took the bronze (1:01,541).
The italian winning ways continued in the junior individual pursuit. Federica Venturelli beat britain’s Isabel Sharp, with france’s Lara Lallemant securing the last place on the podium. The men’s race was one of the most exciting of the day. Luca Giaimi and Ben Felix Jochum kept the thriller until the end. The italian started very strong, but the german looked like he was getting ready to break the “azzurri” hegemony. However, in his last breath, Giaimi secured one more gold for his country. Britain’s Joshua Tarling took third place.
And to keep the rhythm, the celebrations was repeated in the U23 team pursuit. Silvia Zanardi, Vittoria Guazzini, Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini and Matilde Vitillo performed a final part of an overwhelming race to win the British quartet, made up of Eluned King, Ella Barnwell, Kate Richardson, Sophie Lewis. The Germans Fabienne Jährig, Lana Eberle, Lena Charlotte, Hanna Dopjans took bronze by being stronger than the French team.
On the men’s side, Davide Boscaro, Mattia Pinazzi, Manlio Moro, Niccolo Galli were having a good race, with the belgians putting up a fight until the fall of one of their riders ended their European title aspirations. Gianluca Pollefliet, Noah Vandenbranden, Thibaut Bernard, Tuur Dens took home the silver medal. The French Clément Petit, Nicolas Hamon, Eddy le Huitouze, Clément Cordenos secured bronze by beating the British team.
Germany were the only team to intrude on saturday’s italian show at the velodrome. There had two riders in the junior sprint final, with Clara Schneider becoming european champion by being stronger in the final against Stella Müller. Belgian Julie Nicolaes beat Czech Anna Jabornikova in the fight for the bronze medal.
The medal table in terms of gold is now at 10 titles for Italy, against five for Germany, the second team with more wins.
