Mattia Furlani cancels Howe: Italian U20 record with 8.24, after Larissa another phenomenon in the long run

Another immense long jump talent is taking off in Italian (and world) athletics. After Larissa Iapichino, European indoor vice-champion and winner of the Golden Gala in Florence, that’s it Mattia Furlani reach the Italian under 20 record: in Hengelo (Holland) the eighteen year old from Rieti hits 8.24, surpassing the 8.11 after 19 years with which Andrew Howe won the gold medal at the U20 World Championships in Grosseto 2004. The measurement is the fourth overall for an Italian after Howe (8.47), John the Evangelists (8.43) and Simone Bianchi (8.25), and the fourth European U20 ever.

Fly again, Furlani, and this time the wind is regular, indeed even contrary, when at the first jump he takes the lead with a -0.7. Not negligible detail, because a few days ago in Savona it even reached 8.44, a measure never obtained by an Under 20 in any condition: but on that occasion the wind was +2.2, so the youth world record could not be approved.

Despite her young age, the blue already shows off a fast run-up and a perfect deadlift, which concedes practically nothing on the serve axis. After passing Howe, the show continued into the second jump with an 8.14 back into the wind (-0.6). The series was completed with zero in the third, and with two jumps of 7.91 (+0.4) and 7.70 (-0.4).

Trained in Rieti by mom Khaty Secka former sprinter of Senegalese origin, and dad Marcellus, once a high jumper of 2.27, Furlani grows quickly: last season he performed among the students, his personal best was 8.04, now he is even close to qualifying directly for the World Championships in Budapest. He did 8.24, an extra centimeter would have been enough for him to know he was challenging the Olympic gold medalist, the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglouor the world one, the Chinese Wang Jianan. But his ranking should allow him to dream of world championship participation anyway, after winning in one of the most prestigious meetings of the Continental Tour. Meanwhile, he beat two long-distance protagonists like the South African Cheswill Johnson (8.08/+1.1) and the US JuVaughn Harrison (8.07/-0.9). Eighteen years old, but ready for great athletics.