Paltrinieri gives up the 10 km title

FROM THE SENT TO FUKUOKA. Split lip, drawn face, Gregorio Paltrinieri enters the 10 km tested and comes out without medals, without an Olympic pass and yet convinced that if only he could get rid of the fever, which rises cyclically shaking his stomach, he could always play it. The problem is getting rid of it once and for all.

The blue loses the title and scrapes a convinced optimism about the future in a race that slipped away without him: fifth in 1 hour 51 minutes and 40, with Acerenza, silver in the last world championship behind him, fourth in 1h51’16, but without fighting for the podium. Vince Wellbrock (1h50’40), again from Germany; after Leonie Beck’s success in the women’s race, the Germans also place the bronze with Klemet and make the qualifying en plein for Paris. In the middle the Hungarian Rasovszky, silver in Tokyo, veteran of the fund.

The Azzurri have another World Cup: to guarantee the Games, they must qualify among the top 13, in Doha, in February in the umpteenth edition of the competition compressed after the covid suspension. To complicate life World Aquatic also added an extra World Cup last year and now the planets have to be realigned with the rest of the sport. It would have been enough to count Budapest 2022 as an effective recovery, but no: too simple. That was a free ride.
The blue future passes through a winter in Qatar, before getting there Paltrinieri must understand what is happening to him. This season he hasn’t been able to train continuously, in every high altitude period he has lost one week out of three and this malaise always presents itself in the same way: high temperatures, assorted pains, digestive difficulties. During the race, when everything is at the limit, the problems increase: «Since January I’ve stopped six times, I know what I’m worth, I won’t give in, a solution is always found». Now it must be sought.

Paltrinieri wears the jacket of the best of 2022 and aims to put it back on in 2024, but here he has no intention of resigning himself to trouble: «I wasn’t at my best and I still dived to win, we’ll evaluate how much to swim here. The relay for sure, on the 5 km we will make some considerations, for the swimming pool instead there is time to raise the condition». The reigning 1500m champion refuses to give up and Wellbrock’s performance, in the lead right away, without ever giving in, aware that he can dictate the pace and force the others to give up any tactics, doesn’t scare him, «I I try and not so much to say». Faithful to the profile of the warrior who marked his career, even if the fight against viruses must be archived.