A record three gold medals, a record five podium finishes for Italy at the World Indoor Championships , and a best-ever medal finish of third place. A memorable edition for Italian athletics concluded in Torun with Mattia Furlani 's silver medal in the long jump, earning his seventh consecutive international podium at the age of 21, tying his personal best of 8.39. The Italian fought like a lion, despite stomach problems he had during the night, in a thrilling final : on his fifth jump, he equaled the mark he won for the world gold medal in September in Tokyo, a mark he had also achieved this year in Metz, leaping from third to provisional first place, overtaking Bulgarian Bozhidar Saraboyukov (eventually bronze), who had been leading with 8.31.

On his final jump, Portugal's Gerson Baldé surprised everyone with a leap of 8.46, improving his own record by fourteen centimeters to take the gold. This is Furlani's fourth world podium finish after two gold medals in 2025, outdoors in Tokyo and indoors in Nanjing, and the indoor silver in Glasgow in 2024. It all came on a day that began strongly for Italy, with Larissa Iapichino's first career world medal, silver in the long jump with a leap of 6.87. "It's fantastic," said Mattia Furlani, "after the last few weeks, which haven't been easy for me, especially considering I was coming back from a bout with the flu and that last night I had two stomach flus. I did a great job, but at the same time, there's still a lot of work to do. The goal was to confirm and defend the title in Nanjing, there's no point in denying it, but every competition is different. If I had gained more centimeters on the runway in that jump, I would have been around 8.50, and even the landing wasn't the best. It's important to show your strength when it counts: this was a wonderful stage of growth. I'm now ready for certain heights that will become the goal for the outdoor season."

Federico Riva then tried his luck in the 1500m final, always battling at the top of the pack, finishing seventh in 3:40.98. Spaniard Mariano Garcia was the dominant force, winning his second indoor world gold medal in 3:39.63 with a relentless progression that began after 400 meters to reclaim the title he had already won in 2022. With two laps to go, the Italian was still around fourth place, drawing alongside Swede Samuel Pihlstrom (who finished fourth in 3:40.59) but couldn't get past. He looked for space but stayed on the outside, and in the short final straight, he couldn't find a further change of pace. Among the women, Ludovica Cavalli finished ninth in 4:10.10 after losing contact with her rivals with a couple of laps to go. The final was immediately launched at a fast pace by Ethiopian Birke Haylom, who then paid the price for his efforts and finished fifth (4:01.34).

The decisive move came from Great Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell, an Olympic bronze medalist and world silver medalist in the 800m at the last indoor event, who won in 3:58.53. Once the World Championships in Poland are over, World and Olympic champion Armand Duplantis will continue to pursue his passion for music: the Swede will enter the recording studio to create the anthem for the upcoming Ultimate Athletics World Championships in Budapest. After recently breaking the world record for the fifteenth time with a jump of 6.31 meters, the twenty-six-year-old is cultivating his other great passion, becoming the creative mind behind the event's soundtrack. Duplantis has long topped the Swedish charts with some of his songs.

(Unioneonline)

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