I was absolutely lucid »- time.news

by time news
from Marco Bonarrigo

At the Fiamme Gialle party Filippo Tortu remembers the feat at the Tokyo Olympics: «The hop of the perfect change, the fear after the finish, my father’s tears. I will never forget those 37”50 “

CASTELFUSANO «About us sprinters they 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 ran the 37 ”50s of the 4x100m final in Tokyo out of the tunnel: I remember everything penny after cent, meter after meter. And I will never forget it ».

Hot sun on the pine forest of Castelfusano, sun on the kids of «We Run Togheter», the meeting with which the Fiamme Gialle celebrated one hundred years of history, the Olympic medals won by the athletes-financiers in Japan (Tortu, Desalu, Patta, Palmisano, Stano, Sabatini and Caironi) and the hundreds of young promises who train every day in the largest military sports center in Italy, a stone’s throw from the beaches of Rome. Filippo Tortu has just landed from Nairobi: the 20 “11 on the 200 meters – second Italian time ever – closed” the most complicated, beautiful and intense season “of his life, culminating in the gold medal of the relay that changed it for always. It was 10.50 pm on 6 August last.

“I’m here, in the eighth lane. The choke is about to fire and I’m standing, motionless, my eyes are on the starting line. The relay is strange: you go from spectator to actor in seconds. I am much more tense now than in a 100 or 200 because if I go slow or wrong, the gearbox will now ruin years of work for three other people. The starter raises the gun, the shot is only one: I breathe a sigh of relief because the false start is the first thwarted nightmare. I see Lorenzo (Patta) running off fast, I distinctly see the perfect change with Marcell (Jacobs) flying in front of everyone towards Faustino Desalu ».

Tortu reaches the final of the 4×100 after a complicated season: the 9 ”99 three years ago is far away, the results do not arrive, some physical or psychological problem emerges. In Tokyo he partially remedies but in the 100 meters of Jacobs’ triumph he stops at the semifinal.

«Here, Faustino has taken the baton and I know I have seven seconds and a few tenths to get into position. The passage of the stick he and I have tried it hundreds of times. Upon entering the track, I immediately looked for the starting line of the transition area and I counted 25 feet backwards. It is about eight meters: I put a piece of duct tape on the tartan. Faustino runs like a damned man: I see him a meter from the tape, I bend over and leave. The first step is like taking off from a plane: you can’t slow down, you can’t fix the mistake, at the wrong speed. I reach out and wait for his scream. In the exchanges who arrives shouts “hop”: if the “hop” is long – if it is a “hooooop” in short – or if it is too short and dry, there is trouble. Faustino’s “hop” is perfect as I have never heard it in my life. I shoot and I immediately see myself ahead of the Englishman: after the race, on TV, I realized that I was late and I reassembled him but while I am running I am convinced that I am ahead of him and everyone ». Tortu will complete his (launched) fraction in 8 ”92, the fastest time among the four Azzurri, the fastest of his career. «I didn’t really think I could do less than 9» »he confesses.

«At 50 meters from the finish line I think. Other than tunnels: I think at 40 per hour and I understand that the only mistake I must not make is overdoing it, contracting the muscles, packing the engine. I often got stuck, for example in the 100m semi-final a few days before. But now I have an absolute, superior lucidity. I’m winning the Olympics and I just need to stay calm for another three seconds to do it ». Italy conquers the Olympic 4×100 for the first time in its history, beating Great Britain (now at risk of disqualification for doping) and Canada, establishing the new European record.

«When I crossed the finish line I seemed the only one among millions of Italians who did not realize that we had won. The emotion overwhelmed the clarity. Yet out of the corner of my eye I had seen that the Englishman was behind: a penny of detachment a sprinter assesses him clearly. Lorenzo hugged me, I asked him for confirmation but he was crying and didn’t answer. So I turned to the boys in the stands and for a moment I had the doubt that they were celebrating silver. Then luckily the result appeared on the screen and I didn’t understand anything anymore ». In a difficult season, many have shot on Salvino Tortu, Filippo’s father and coach: he is not a training technician, he is too protective with his son, he makes him compete a little, he should direct him to the 200 meters rather than the 100 meters, he does not accept that anyone interferes in an exclusive relationship.

«My father was in the stands and we met again 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 crying: I had never seen him cry and I was moved. They criticized us, hard and hard. But they are criticisms that leave me indifferent. Have they ever come to see how we train? How much do we argue? How carefully do we listen to the advice of Filippo Di Mulo, the national team coach, and the other coaches? Whoever criticizes regardless does not deserve my attention and frankly it does not even bother me ».

September 22, 2021 (change September 22, 2021 | 00:01)

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