Short Track World Championships, Sighel’s brace: it’s gold and silver

Over the longest distance, the Trentino born in 1999 placed second, surrendering only to the home favorite: the South Korean Park Ji-Won. At the finish line, the Canadian Steven Dubois had also preceded the blue, but the North American was then disqualified by the jury, allowing Sighel to climb a step. A podium that allowed him to become the fourth Italian ever to win a medal in all 3 individual distances in a world championship, adding his name to myths such as Orazio Fagone, Fabio Carta and Arianna Fontana. In 2021, in fact, Pietro had already put two bronze medals around his neck in the 500 and 1000 in Dordrecht (Holland).

Therefore, only one metal was missing from his already rich collection, but the gap was soon filled in the shortest distance. On the 4 and a half laps of the 500m, Sighel unleashed the race of his life, finding the starting point in the last corner to gain two positions and burn Lin Xiaojun right at the photo finish, the skater who won the Olympic gold as a South Korean in 2018 in the 1500m in PyeongChang but who now defends the colors of China. Italy hadn’t won a men’s title since the last millennium, when Fabio Carta triumphed in the 1500m on the ice in Sofia (Bulgaria).

For the lightning of the Fiamme Gialle, already on the Olympic podium twice in the Beijing 2022 relay (silver in the medley and bronze in the men), it is the individual consecration after the continental title always on the 500m in January at the European Championships in Gdansk (Poland). On the other hand, ice had been in his veins since birth, given that his father Roberto was the first Italian to win a world title in history, but on a long track: now Pietro is the king of the shortest ring.

Small regret is that from this year the overall title will no longer be awarded because the blue would have already been on the right track, but today he can still enrich the tally in tomorrow’s 1000 meters and in the relay, given the qualification centered today with his teammates Andrea Cassinelli, Tommaso Dotti and Luca Spechenhauser. He passed to the final in the relay also for women with Arianna Sighel (Pietro’s older sister), Elisa Confortola, Gloria Ioriatti and Arianna Valcepina.