The Italian gold rush at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 June could very possibly begin on the roads in the very first medal event of the championships.
And with European 10,000m champion Yemaneberhan Crippa to follow later in the week in the half marathon, the streets could indeed be paved with gold for the hosts in Rome.
Can Palmisano be inspired to 20km race walk gold?
The 20km race walk takes place in an Olympic-year edition of the European Athletics Championships for the first time and the organisers have devised a course which finishes inside the Stadio Olimpico, the first time the race walk has finished inside the main arena in any major event since the 2015 World Athletics Championships.
And with double world champion Maria Perez opting to give this event a miss as she continues her comeback from a stress fracture, there is a very good chance it could be an Italian who emerges into the Stadio Olimpico in the lead in the first medal event of the championships.
Antonella Palmisano has also endured more than her fair share of injury problems since winning the Olympic 20km race walk title but the 32-year-old, who races with a distinctive flower in her hair, is back to her best, returning to win a bronze medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and comes in with the second fastest season’s best with 1:27:27.
But despite the absence of world champion Perez who won this title in Berlin 2018, the Spaniards won’t be without medal chances in one of their most cherished and successful disciplines. The fastest of their triumvirate is Laura Garcia-Caro who clocked 1:27:19 on a notoriously fast course in La Coruna last month.
The gold medallist two years ago was Antigoni Ntrismpioti who showed that Greek lightning does indeed strike twice as she came back from winning the 35km race walk in Munich 2022 to double her tally with a come-from-behind gold medal in the shorter discipline.
Now 40, Ntrismpioti hasn’t showed much in terms of form this year but the veteran race walker - who also won bronze in the 35km race walk at the 2023 World Athletics Championships - is a redoubtable championship performer who is more than capable of winning against the odds as she demonstrated in Munich.
Her exploits were made all the more impressive as Ntrismpioti had to squeeze in her training around shifts at her family restaurant in Karditsa where she worked as a waitress. “I train sometimes before I start work and sometimes afterwards,” she said afterwards.
And on the road to Paris 2024, also watch out for the French duo of Clemence Beretta who has improved the national record to 1:28:44 and European U23 champion Pauline Stey who has improved to 1:29:07 this year.
Karlström on the cusp of elusive 20km race walk gold
Will Perseus Karlstrom finally win a gold medal in a major championships in the 20km race walk?
The Swede has been a perennial fixture on podiums at major championships recent seasons but a gold medal has always narrowly eluded the 34-year-old who has accrued one silver and three bronze medals at the World Athletics Championships along with silver from the 20km race walk in Munich 2022, a gutsy effort after he had to be escorted off the course after succumbing to the hot conditions in the 35km race walk.
Karlstrom marched to victory earlier this season at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Türkiye in April and his chances of striking a repeat gold in Rome will be heightened in the absence of reigning world and European 20km race walk champion Alvaro Martin from Spain.
And another unfortunate absentee is the reigning Olympic champion Massimo Stano who would have dearly loved to emulate his compatriot Maurizio Damilano who won the 20km race walk title at the 1987 World Athletics Championships in Rome.
Stano leads the 2024 European list with a 1:17:26 clocking but the 32-year-old pulled up injured at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Türkiye in April with a fractured foot and returned home on crutches.
The biggest threat to Karlstrom - whose mother Siv won bronze in the 10km race walk at the 1986 European Athletics Championships - could come from one of the youngest entrants in the race in the shape of Paul McGrath who headlines the Spanish challenge in the absence of reigning champion Martin.
McGrath, who cites Rome as his favourite city, has already won European U20 and U23 titles and could very possibly add a senior title to the medal receptacle at the age of 22 after storming to the Spanish title earlier this year in 1:17:55 to smash through the 1:20-barrier for the first time.
"That would be marvellous but I’m fully aware it will be extremely hard to accomplish as all the finest walkers will gather there,” admitted McGrath in a recent interview with European Athletics.
Also watch out for fellow Italian Francesco Fortunato who took a breakthrough victory over many of the aforementioned names at the European Race Walking Team Championships in Podebrady, Czechia last year.
Can Crippa strike again in the half marathon?
Yemaneberhan Crippa sprinted to 10,000m gold in Munich 2022 but the Italian will go in search of gold on the roads in Rome in the half marathon on a course which begins in front of the Fori Imperiali and concludes in the Olympic Stadium.
“It will be exciting to run at home in Rome surrounded by culture and such beautiful architecture.
“There is a lot of expectation for Sunday 9 June and I hope to see a lot of spectators supporting the Italian athletes and champions from all over Europe coming to Rome,” said Crippa, who is the third fastest European half marathon runner of all-time at 59:26 and leads a strong Italian contingent in the event.
While Crippa is stepping up in distance, Germany’s Richard Ringer is dropping down in distance after his last gasp sprint finish to win marathon gold on home soil in Munich two years ago.
And with team medals up for grabs in Rome as well, the Germans begin as the arguable favourite in the context of the team race. Their team also features Amanal Petros, who holds the German marathon record at 2:04:56, and Samuel Fitwi and Hendrik Pfeiffer who have clocked 2:06:27 and 2:07:14 respectively for the marathon this year.
The half marathon has only been contested once before at the European Athletics Championships back in Amsterdam 2016. The winner on that day was Tadesse Abraham who is back again and forms part of a strong Swiss team which also includes European record-holder Julien Wanders (59:13 PB) who is battling back to form after a plethora of illness and injuries and Matthias Kyburz, a multiple world orienteering champion who clocked 2:07:44 on his marathon debut in Paris in April.
Other contenders include Norwegians Sondre Nordstad Moen and Zerei Kbrom - the latter winning silver behind Crippa in the 10,000m in Munich 2022 - and a strong Israeli team which features 2022 European marathon bronze medallist Gashau Ayele.
In the women’s half marathon, 2018 European 10,000m champion Lonah Chemtai Salpeter is one of the standout entrants but there are doubts about the Kenyan-born Israeli’s fitness as she hasn’t raced at all this season.
Other standout entrants are European record-holder Melat Kejeta from Germany (65:18 PB), three-time European cross country champion Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal (67:24 PB) as well as two strong contenders who will be making their debuts for their adopted nation in Roma 2024.
Veteran road runner Joan Chelimo makes her debut for Romania - her lifetime best of 65:04 from 2018 when she still represented Kenya makes her the fastest in the field - along with Helen Bekele Tola (66:45 PB) who has finally gained clearance to compete for Switzerland having lived there since 2016.
Poland’s Aleksandra Lisowska, who won a surprise marathon gold in Munich 2022, returns as does Croatia’s Mateo Parlov Kostro, the equally unexpected silver medallist in the marathon.
Steven Mills for European Athletics