Italy has been found to be the power of athletics in this Olympics: gold after Gianmarco Tambery in the high jump and Marcel Jacob in the 100m, to name a few, over time. Massimo Stano 20 km walk. Unexpected as Tamberi and Jacob were, the 29-year-old from Puglia, also from Palo del Cole (Barry), was not even among the outsiders. Instead, he repeated the Japanese advantage in Sapporo’s terrible heat Abdon Pamich | At the 1964 Games, even if it was 50 km.

From the twelfth kilometer, he did it with a sensational breakthrough, closing the gap with the beloved Wang and keeping the Japanese behind Ikeda and Yamanishi, closing in 1h21’05. Stano is coming out of nowhere, having finished fourth on the podium at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, but he has not looked better in recent seasons or half seasons. But the wild card came out, as often happens in extreme weather conditions, at 30 degrees and 80% humidity. Italy became the third Olympic gold medalist in the 20 km, after Mauricio Damilano of Moscow in 1980 and Ivano Brugnetti of Athens in 2004.

Distance is part of the Melbourne 1956 Games, and we have two Damilano bronzes (Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988), as well as the 1992 Giovanni de Benedictis of Barcelona. Stano’s venture is an Italian venture that has won three athletics. Oil alone in 1980 (Pietro Mania at 200 m, Sarah Simeone at altitude, Mauricio Damilano at 20 km), 1984 (Alberto Cove, Alessandro Andre at 10,000 m, Gabriela Dorio at 1500 m) and two other editions due to boycotts. But in Tokyo 2020 it is not over yet, maybe.