The rise of Samuele Ceccarelli | The paper

To climb the world in a few months and beat the world number one in the sprint you need a guide. AND Samuel Ceccarellithe 23-year-old from Massa who at the Assoluti indoor in Ancona he beat His Majesty Marcell Jacobs by just one centdid not choose just any guide. Marco Del Medicothe technician who before the tricolors had had no contact with the national leaders, is the architect of the miracle, a Tuscan outside the grand tour who had so far made himself known precisely for this: Paralympic guide of the visually impaired Lorenzo Ricci who at the Sydney 2000 Olympics had won two golds, in the 100 meters and in the relay.

Del Medico had also paved the way in this field. “I can say that it is thanks to me that from London 2012 even the Olympic guides can get on the podium and receive medals like the athletes. In Sydney, thanks to the common work in the post office, Lorenzo, who was worth 11″6, chose me because I was still able to run under 11″ and at the Games I think I did my job well. Then I was the protagonist of a blatant protest: I went up on the podium and Ricci took the medal from his neck and handed it to me. The result was a parliamentary question which made the role of the guides official”.

A good career as a pupil hampered by injuries and family problems, the policeman from Seravezza, in the province of Lucca, began to train in his spare time at the Pietrasanta camp in Versilia where a friend first brought him his daughter, Sara Corrotti, and then a boy who as a junior he had run in 10”58 but had been out due to injury for eight months. We were at the beginning of 2020: I found myself in front of a well-structured boy, born in 2000, who came from football and karate but was technically unable to give vent to his basic speed. “I immediately understood that the problem was the orthotics that Samuele put in his shoes but I was unable to convince him: so he fixed a stress fracture first in the right calf and then in the left one. And yet, every now and then in training Samuele did extraordinary things like a 15″2 over 150 metres. So one day I put theeither-or: if you want to train with me you have to throw away these blessed orthotics. The result was immediately evident: in 2021, before the Olympics, at the Assoluti he ran in 10″45 in Rovereto finishing fifth behind Jacobs and at the under 23 European Championships in Tallinn he placed a fantastic 9″49 in the last leg of the 4×100 relay. I understood that if I had found the right set-up I had a phenomenon in my hands”.

An exemplary story of perseverance and dedication. Last December, before leaving the under 23 category, Ceccarelli placed a significant 5″81 on 50 meters in Modena, then 6″61 at the beginning of 2023 in Ancona and Del Monaco convinced Jump, the managerial group that follows Larissa Iapichino , to find space for him in some foreign meeting. “It’s there, in front of the great sprinters and in front of the general public, Samuele demonstrated all his character: 6″ 65 in Sabadell and an incredible 6” 58 in Berlin which was the appetizer of what we saw in Ancona . Yet very few noticed it: I asked my journalist friends and knocked on the doors of the Versilia newspapers but they told me that he was from Massa. A few lines have appeared in the newspapers. And you want to know the truth: apart from the contacts as an athlete with Stefano Mei in the eighties when we were together at Assi Banca, I saw the Azzurri coaches for the first time in Ancona”.

In short, Samuele Ceccarelli, an aspiring lawyer in his father’s footsteps, was still an unknown object when at the Assoluti indoor he burned Jacobs in the sprint with a 6″54 which is already worth the third European performance of the year and has shown that he has not gone to his head in mixed-zone interviews. Indeed, to find out more about him at the Palaindoor in Ancona we went hunting for Nicola Vizzoni, the hammer thrower who made the platforms of Pietrasanta famous when he won Olympic silver in Sydney 2000. “I saw Samuel grow up while he was training in the sun and in the rain because Marco is a friend of mine. Two balanced and respectable people, never a word out of place. When they asked me for the keys to the padlock to take my tools and do some weights, I made the gym available to them. Well, I’m not surprised: we will hear a lot about Ceccarelli”. You don’t beat Jacobs by accident.