Home glory for Italians at the European Masters Athletics Championships, in the province of Venice. Day 8 competitions were highlighted by two records smashed by local favourites. In Caorle former Olympian Carmelo Rado tossed the discus out to 35.92m in throwing pentathlon and improved his own M85 world record by almost one metre. It was the fourth gold medal in one week for the man who finished seventh at 1960 Rome Games.
In middle distance running, Eraclea track witnessed another superb performance by Bruno Baggia, who bettered the continental mark at M85 5000m clocking 24:50.08, one second less than compatriot Luciano Acquarone back in 2015. He accomplished the same feat six days ago in 1500m.
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The oldest competitor in this edition was cheered by fans in Jesolo, as Giuseppe Ottaviani took part in long jump. Born in 1916, now he is 103 and attracted a lot of interest from media, being interviewed by national television. At sunset, pole vaulter Irie Hill from Great Britain made a new W50 championship record with 3.35. After that she asked for the bar to be raised to 3.45 and the attempt to break her own world record of 3.41 failed very narrowly.
Luca Cassai – photos by Alfred Hermes