Italy, carried by its Olympic high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi, won the European Athletics Team Championship on Sunday in Chorzow (Poland), in which France took 7th place. Italy won at the end of the 37 events on the program with a total of 426.50 points, ahead of Poland (402.50 pts) and Germany (387.50 pts).
The Italian athletes have won seven events, including the men’s high with Tamberi (2.29m) and the men’s 100m with Samuele Ceccarelli, who replaced 2021 Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs who, hampered by persistent sciatica, had to make a cross on this meeting, two months from the Worlds-2023 in Budapest (August 19-27).
France, down after two disappointing first days, finished strong with a total of 337.50 and three victories, all won on Sunday, thanks to Ryan Zeze, best time in the 200m in 20 sec 29/100th, Hilary Kpatcha at the length (6.75 m) and Nawal Meniker in height (1.90 m).
Belgium (14th), Turkey (15th) and Norway (16th) finished in the last three places and are relegated to the European 2nd division. These nations will be replaced in the European elite by Hungary, Ukraine and Lithuania at the next European Team Championship which will take place in 2025. The competition, neglected by more and more big names in the discipline, inaugurated this year a new formula with a division into three divisions on the same site, that of the European Games in Krakow.
