If this month were to give the award for "walker of the month" to an Italian athlete we would be really embarrassed.
It is very difficult to choose between Antonella Palmisano and Francesco Fortunato.
Both athletes, coached by Patrizio Parcesepe won in Ancona a beautiful edition of the Italian Indoor Championships.
Both have got the worldwide resonance performances.
Antonella Palmisano became world leder in the indoor season 2016/2017 in 12:08.83 some seconds higher than her personal best of 12:05.68 (established in Padova on Feb. 21, 2015) ripe to be broken.
She raced in the lead from start to finish, with a very nice walk, as in her style, and giving a lot to the show for the specialty lovers.
Francesco Fortunato has competed in a similar manner. He, too, leading from the first meters of the race to set the pace.
Perhaps in the first 2,000m have suffered psychologically from Vito Minei with which in past years has hired many challenges with mixed results, but after the 3.000m his walk was a masterpiece.
A few times in an indoor race we saw a technical movement so fluid and profitable.
The result was then the cherry on the cake.
Broken the personal best established last season over the distance (from 19:12.00 to 18:59.06), but mostly shot down the psychological wall of 19:00.00 achieved at the time this year only by three athletes (last season had been in five).
At scoring level the two performances by Antonella Palmisano and Francesco Fortunato are almost equal.
In the scoring tables drawn up and updated by Attila Spiriev, Francesco Fortunato performance earns 1,145 points while that of Antonella Palmisano 1,149 so that, even in this case, indecision is maximum.
If we compare the score obtained by the two athletes in the respective races on 10km and 20km we obtain the following table.
| Score | Athlete | Value | 10km | 20km |
| | | | | |
| 1.145 | FORTUNATO Francesco | As if | 39:39 | 1:22:09 |
| | | Personal best | 39:46.25 | 1:22:57 |
| 1.149 | PALMISANO Antonella | As if | 43:16 | 1:29:21 |
| | | Personal best | 42:50 | 1:27:51 |
We will see that while Antonella Palmisano has already achieved best performances in the past, for Francesco Fortunato is opening up a new unexplored world.
Marcia dal Mondo hopes in the approval of their coach, who is the one who puts his face, and has chosen Francesco Fortunato.
The cover photo by Giancarlo Colombo, shows him to the ground exhausted after arrival in Ancona.
We would like to see him so soon after having broken the mythical 1:20:00 wall.
Thanks to Giancarlo Colombo for photos.