It is not even a month since triple jumper Fabrizio Donato turned 40 but nothing is stopping him reaching new athletics landmarks.
On an evening to remember for the host nation Italy, Donato once more demonstrated his brilliance at the 52nd Palio Citta di Quercia in Rovereto on Tuesday.
Donato’s best jump of the season, 16.93m, brought him a World Masters record in the 40+ category and he was denied victory only in the last round as France’s Harold Correa, who is exactly half his age, reached 16.98m with Fabian Florant, of the Netherlands, in third (16.48m).
The desire for success remains for the 2012 European champion and Olympic bronze medallist who then revealed he is planning to return to London next summer for the IAAF World Championships.
Donato, speaking to usquercia.it, said: 'I am very well and tonight, maybe I had even more in my legs than that.
'I leave Rovereto satisfied and with all the enthusiasm and charge for the start of next season also. After the Olympic bronze in 2012, I have an appointment with London for next summer at the world championships.'
Equally, he may even decide to compete at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March, an event where he won gold in Turin in 2009 and silver in Paris in 2011.
Donato was not the only Italian making his mark at this European Athletics Outdoor Premium meeting.
As expected, the women’s mile was a race to remember, with Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba running the second fastest time for the distance as she won in 4:14.30, missing the world record by 1.74 with her 1500m timed at 3:57.31, a meeting record.
The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan was second (4:25.50) and American Alexa Efraimson (4:27.39) was third while in fourth, Italy’s Federica Del Buono, 21, delighted the crowd even more as she came home in a national under-23 record of 4:28.13.
It was some performance as she broke the record time of 4:38:07 which Fabia Trabaldo had set in London in 1993 - over a year before Del Buono was born.
#atletica Federica Del Buono MIGLIORE PRESTAZIONE ITALIANA U23 del MIGLIO al #PaliodellaQuercia Rovereto: 4:28.13 pic.twitter.com/gW9QjSUk9N
— Atletica Italiana (@atleticaitalia) September 6, 2016
Amel Tuka, the world 800m bronze medallist from Bosnia & Herzegovina, delivered a fine sprint finish to run his quickest time of the year to win in 1:44.80 from Algeria’s Yassine Hethat (1:45.18) and Burundi’s Antoine Gakeme (1:45.67).
And there was double success for Estonia as Rasmus Mägi, who was sixth in the Olympic final, won the men’s 400m hurdles in 49.04 from Algeria’s Abdelmalik Lahoulou (49.40) as fellow countryman Martin Kupper took the discus on the final throw with 64.62m to beat Apostolos Parellis, of Cyprus, who was second with 64.29m and thought he had been heading for victory.
Ukraine’s Hana Titimets (56.42) triumphed in the women’s 400m hurdles from Italy’s Marzia Caravelli (57.31) and in the pole vault, Belarusian Iryna Yakaltsevich won with a personal best of 4.51m from Ukraine’s Maryna Kylypko (4.30m).