The 23-year-old from Trentino wins the first global title of his career in Gdansk, the 28-year-old from Valtellina is on the podium for the first time. Relays in the final
Italy of the short track is there: at the European Championships in Gdansk, Poland, on the first day of the finals, two medals arrive, both from the 500m. Pietro Sighel is gold, Arianna Valcepina bronze. For the young national team of director Kenan Gouadec and coaches Derrick Campbell and Nicola Rodigari, after the four podiums in the first three stages of the World Cup of the season, it is another clear sign of vitality.
His
—
Sighel, 23 years old from Trentino, already on the Olympic podium twice and three on the world one, conquers the first title of his career in a global review. And – the usual red skates – confirms all his talent. The son of art – father Roberto was five times Olympic in long track – is the fastest in all four rounds in the program and in the final he acts as ruler. He closes in 41 ”514, setting the Dutchman Jens Van’t Wout and the Latvian Reinis Berzins. The financier, two years ago – in 2022 the event was canceled – on the same ice as Hala Olivia, was second in the 500m, beaten by the Russian Konstantin Ivliev by 117/1000 of a second. And over the distance, in the World Cup, between October and December, he had been third twice (also in Salt Lake City, the first Italian under the 40-second wall) and fourth once. Up to the masterpiece of Gdansk, with his sister Arianna on board him balustrade to applaud him after the success in the final B (fifth).
Lei
—
Speaking of sisters… Arianna Valcepina, younger than the more titled Martina, also signs an exploit. The 28-year-old from Bormio, another financier, for years a precious pawn in the Italian relays (she too was silver in the mixed one at the 2002 Beijing Games), with 44″011 hits the first global individual medal of her career, beaten only by the Dutch cannibal Suzanne Schulting (43”825), confirmed by the Polish Natalia Maliszewska (43”938). On the finish line there are only three thousandths of a second separating her from the German Anna Seidel and the result is made official after reading the photo finish.
The others
—
Good news, from Gdansk, also comes from the relay teams, both promoted to the final four on Sunday by imposing themselves in their own semifinal, when the titles of the 1000m will also be assigned (no longer, for the first time, those of the general classifications). The men’s team of Mattia Antonioli, Tommaso Dotti, Thomas Nadalini and Sighel himself will challenge the quartets from France, Holland and Poland. The female one, as well as from Valcepina and Sighel composed by Nicole Botter Gomez and Gloria Ioriatti, will face the formations of Holland, Hungary and Poland. Meanwhile, in the 1500 won by Van’t Wout and Schulting, Luca Spechenauser (seventh), Sighel (another fifth place) and Elisa Confortola (sixth) arrive in the final.
January 14, 2023 (change January 14, 2023 | 19:51)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
