HEUSEN.ZOLDER. Italy reclaims the spotlight at the Junior Track World Championships in Heusden-Zolder. Matteo Maggioni wins the points race, Agata Campana eliminates him, and Matteo Ghirelli wins the kilometer race. Completing the four-man sweep was the men's pursuit quartet, who claimed their fifth consecutive victory. After just two days, the Italians thus equal the four world titles they earned in last year's entire edition. The triumphant day was rounded out by the bronze medal in the women's pursuit.
POINTS RACE – Maggioni takes the title with 45 points. The Italian gained two laps on the pack and picked up another five in the intermediate sprints: three in the third and two in the seventh. In the finale, he held off a comeback from New Zealander Riley Crampton, who took silver with 42 points. Frenchman Tom Podevin took bronze with 31. Born on January 21, 2009, Maggioni is 17 years old. He races on the road with Team Guerrini Senaghese and is facing his first season in the category.
ELIMINATION – Agata Campana's second Italian gold medal came courtesy of her, who won the world title in the elimination. The Trentino native finished ahead of Olga Kostina, second, and Spain's Adriana Vargas Suñer, third. This is Campana's second medal in two days in Belgium. On the opening day, she took silver in the scratch event, behind American Emma Louise Jimenez Palos and ahead of Angelina Novolodskaya. The elimination event is the second world title of her career. In 2025, in Apeldoorn, Campana won gold in the team sprint event alongside Matilde Cenci, Siria Trevisan, and Rebecca Fiscarelli. The eighteen-year-old Italian thus confirms her performance at the European Junior Championships last July, where she won two titles, the scratch event and the elimination event, and silver in the Madison event.
KM – Matteo Ghirelli earned Italy's third world title of the day by winning the standing kilometer. In qualifying, the Italian posted the second-fastest time of 1:01.363, behind Germany's Leonidas Rekowski, who finished first in 1:01.122. Another Italian, Filippo Melotto, finished 24th in 1:05.578 and was eliminated from the final eight. In the decisive race, Ghirelli was second after 250 meters in 18.849, just six thousandths of a second behind Mikhail Demish. He took the lead at the halfway mark with a time of 32.235 and remained ahead through 750 meters. On the final lap, Rekowski almost closed the gap, but the Italian maintained his lead by 28 thousandths of a second and took the rainbow jersey in 1:01.484. Demish took bronze in 1:01.839.
Matteo Ghirelli, born June 23, 2008, and a member of SC Forlivese, is a speed specialist. At the 2026 European Junior Championships in Cottbus, he won two silver medals, in the kilometer and sprint. At these World Championships, he contributed to the Italian bronze medal in the team sprint.
CHASE – In qualifying, Nicola Padovan, Ruben Ferrari, Paolo Marangon, and Alberto Veglia set the fastest time of 3:56.894, beating Switzerland by just 0.59 seconds. In the first round, Lorenzo Ceccarello replaced Marangon: the Italians beat Belgium and dropped to 3:55.164, advancing to the gold medal final.
Marangon returned to replace Ceccarello in the decisive race. Padovan, Ferrari, Marangon, and Veglia immediately took the lead against Switzerland: they passed the 1,000 meters in 1:01.961, more than two seconds ahead, increased their lead to 2:859 at the halfway point, and increased it to 2:554 at the 3,000 meters. The Swiss made up some ground in the final kilometer, but Italy won clearly, with a time of 3:54.010 to 3:56.073.
This is the fifth consecutive world title for the Azzurri in the junior team pursuit. A five-year reign in a category where athletes remain for a maximum of two seasons and the roster changes almost completely from one edition to the next. Consistency thus becomes the small sporting miracle of a school, of a multi-medal-winning coach like Dino Salvoldi, capable of renewing the group each year without interrupting the winning streak, and of a program capable of providing valuable elements every season to keep the endurance sector at the absolute top.
WOMEN'S PURSUIT – Confirmation of the overall strength of the sector also came from the women's pursuit, which took bronze with the quartet of Elisa Bianchi, Maria Acuti, Azzurra Ballan, and Matilde Rossignoli.
