Italian athletes break records at Rome's Silver and Golden Gala meets

On June 3, the Silver Gala in Rome highlighted several breakthrough performances. Sara Cirillo ran the women's 400 m in 51.90 seconds, edging out Alice Mangione by one hundredth of a second. Francesco Pagliarini posted a 20.76‑second time in the men's 200 m, just a hundredth ahead of Marco Ricci. Michele Bertoldo won the 400 m hurdles in 49.80 seconds and Pietro Colonna threw the javelin 71.77 metres.

Later at the Golden Gala, also in Rome, 20‑year‑old high jumper Matteo Sioli made history as the first Italian to win the men’s high jump at the meeting. He cleared 2.26 metres and then 2.28 metres, meeting the qualifying mark for the European Championships. Sioli said, “I’m really excited… the goal of the day was to get the minimum for the Europeans, set at 2.27 metres.”