"We sprinters say that when we are launched at 40 per hour it is as if we were running in a tunnel: we do not see, we do not hear, we do not think about anything, only to go fast. But I am the 37" 50 of the final of the 4x100 in Tokyo I ran them out of the tunnel: I remember everything penny after cent, meter after meter. And I will never forget it. "These are the words of Filippo Tortu in an exciting account of the sensations experienced in the historic day of the triumph of the 4x100 blue relay at the Tokyo Olympics.
The athlete of the Fiamme Gialle, who has just concluded "the most complicated, beautiful and intense season" of his life, in an interview taken by the press agencies returns to the magical race of last August 6.
"I didn't really think I could do less than 9 '- Tortu admits - I think 50 meters from the finish line. Other than tunnels: I think at 40 per hour and I understand that the only mistake I must not do is overdo it, contract my muscles, pack the engine. I often got stuck, for example in the semifinal of the 100 meters a few days before. But now I have an absolute, superior clarity. I'm winning the Olympics and I just need to stay calm for another three seconds to do it ".
He succeeds and Italy wins the Olympic 4x100 for the first time in its history and in the end his time will be 8 "92, he is the fastest among the four Azzurri.
"When I crossed the finish line I seemed the only one among millions of Italians who did not understand that we had won. The emotion overwhelmed the clarity. Yet out of the corner of my eye I saw that the Englishman was behind: a hundredth of a gap a sprinter assesses him clearly. Lorenzo hugged me, I asked him for confirmation but he was crying and did not answer. So I turned to the boys in the stands and for a moment I had the doubt that they were celebrating the silver. Then luckily he appeared. the result on the screen and I did not understand anything ".
A triumph that the Sardinian-born athlete dedicates to dad Salvino, father-coach targeted by criticism. "My father was in the stands and we saw each other a long time after the race. We who talk to each other at all times, for 30 seconds we were unable to say anything. Then he started to cry: I had never seen him cry and I was moved. They criticized us, so much and harshly. But they are criticisms that leave me indifferent. "
(Unioneonline / vl)
