Everything is ready in Ancona for the 2018 edition of the Italian U23 and U20 Indoor Championships.
We only remember the times of the competitions:
- 3:00pm: 3.000m indoor U20 women
- 3.30pm: 5.000m indoor U23 men
- 4:05pm: 3.000m indoor U23 women
- 4:35pm: 5.000m indoor U20 men
3.000m indoor U20 women
Are 18 the athletes at the start.
Andrada Lavinia Lacatus (ITA) wins quite easily in 14:09.56
These are his spilt times:
-1000m 4:41.8
- 2000m: 9:23.3 (4:41.5)
- last 1.000m in 4:46:26
Second place to Anthea Mirabello (ITA) in 14:19.66
Third place to Vittoria Giordani (ITA) in 14:23.78
5.000m indoor U23 men
Only 9 athletes at the start.
After two laps goes to lead the pack Gianluca Picchiottino passing to 1,000m in 3:57.5
Gianluca Picchiottino (ITA) continues his lead throughout the race with these split times:
- 2.000m: 7:48.8 (3:51.3)
- 3.000m: 11:41.4 (3:52.6)
- 4.000m: 15:36.3 (3:54.9)
- last 1,000m in 3:57.60
Meanwhile, Stefano Chiesa (ITA) has passed Giacomo Brandi (ITA) for the second position.
Victory to Gianluca Picchiottino (ITA) in 19:33.90 which represents the new personal best (previous of 19:45.50 (established in Ancona on February 4, 2017), but above all the best world performance 2018 in U23 better of the time of 20:00.50 established by Salih Korkmaz (TUR) in Istanbul last January 13, 2018.
Second place to Stefano Chiesa (ITA) in 20:15.27
Third place to Giacomo Brandi (ITA) in 20:28.46
3.000m indoor U23 women
14 athletes at the start.
Easy victory to Eleonora Dominici (ITA) in 13:04.21 only 3/100 higher than the personal best (13:04.18) of past year.
These are her split times:
- 1000m: 4:24.4
- 2000m: 8:46.5 (4:22.1)
- last 1.000m in 4:17.31
Second place to Lidia Barcella (ITA) in 13:59.90
Third place to Martina Ansaldi (ITA) in 15:09.82
5.000m indoor U20 men
Twenty athletes at the start.
Diego Chirivì (ITA) and Davide Marchesi (ITA) lead in first laps.
Split times are the following:
- 1.000m: 4:10.7
- 2.000m: 8.13.9 (4:03.2)
- 3.000m: 12:27.9 (4:64.0)
After 3.000m Davide Marchesi (ITA) goes definitely to lead and will not be catched.
Split time at 4.000m is 16:43.5 (4:15.6)
Victory to Davide Marchesi (ITA) in 20:54.92 new personal best (previous of 21:57.38 established in Ancona on February 13, 2016)
Second place to Diego Chirivì (ITA) in 21:18.30
Third place to Riccardo Orsoni (ITA) in 21:53.47
Some technical considerations
Last week, during the road race in Grosseto, we had pleasantly pointed out that finally the DQ posting board (usually sparkling with red cards for bent knee) was presented with the error indications much more in line with those of an international judgment.
Unfortunately today it was not like that.
Only 4 red cards for loss of contact against 32 bent knee in today's events.
We do not discuss the disqualifications that we believe have been corrected, but we would like to point out that other athletes could have been penalized more severely.
Returning to the enormous difference between bent knee and loss of contact red cards, we allow ourselves to observe that it is a problem derived from the "modern" race walk technique (heel attack at the ground much closer to the extension of the center of gravity).
The shorter the straight leg period the quicker we can walk, because we minimize the resulting moment of inertia forces, at the expense of increasing the flight period (but if the frequency is sufficient high and the race walk "soft and grazing" the flight period will not be seen by human eye).
But that also has the handicap of including the moment of extension in the visual "uncertainty zone", in this way the walker with this technique is exposed to "generate" a visually apparent flexion, although nonexistent in reality, but ... as we all know ... the red cards really arrive.
This explanation should make us reflect more on the following: the Russian walkers never had a lot of problems due to bent knee card. Their full extension was very much anticipated at the time of the heel to the ground, so they always gave a visual impression of complete extension "without any doubt" (and it really was that way, too !).
We recommend watching this clip at normal speed and then with step by step and stop image at the moment with contact with the ground of the advancing leg heel
Our doubts sometimes deserve reflection !
Video clip: click here