(PRIMASPORT) SHANGHAI The Italian pursuit team is not missing the World Championships; on the first day of competition, they reached the men's final and easily made it through qualifying against the women. This ensures their first medal of this edition, although they'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how much it will cost. Martina Fidanza finished fourth, albeit with some regrets, in the scratch race, while the Team Sprint tournament ended in qualifying.
Francesco Lamon, Alessio Magagnotti, Jonathan Milan, and Filippo Ganna, after finishing the qualifying rounds with the third-fastest time of 3:47.272, just 118 thousandths of a second behind Great Britain, corrected their various mistakes from the morning and clearly outperformed the British in the first round, stopping the clock at 3:45.332. This result, in addition to securing access to the world final, also earns them important points for Olympic qualification.
Tomorrow, Thursday 15 October, at 6pm local time (12pm in Italy), the competition returns, against Denmark, who set the fastest time in both the qualifications (3'44″991) and the first round (3'44″043) and are favourites to win.
There was great interest especially in the addition of Alessio Magagnotti, 19 years old, making his debut in an Elite World Championship: «"I made several mistakes in qualifying. In the afternoon, I was more focused, more aware of what I could do and what mistakes to avoid. We lowered our time by almost two seconds. This is my first foursome with the big boys, the first time I've been this fast. I missed the adrenaline rush of the track.".
The young Trentino player also underlines his relationship with his more experienced teammates: «"They're easygoing guys, I couldn't have asked for better. After qualifying, they didn't immediately come to tell me what I'd done wrong. They congratulated me, and then we talked about it calmly over lunch. It's a great group, and we hope to continue growing together. Denmark? It'll be incredibly difficult, but it doesn't cost anything to believe."».
Filippo Ganna is satisfied: «We left Italy with the desire to reach the podium. Tomorrow we'll be fighting for the top spot, and we know we can go strong. Magagnotti, after the first race, bounced back remarkably. We hope he recovers well for tomorrow. Lamon also did his part. Racing behind Jonathan Milan is now like sitting on my lap: we know each other well and we know what we can give each other.».
The women's pursuit also showed strong performances, with Martina Fidanza, Martina Alzini, Elisa Balsamo, and Vittoria Guazzini setting the third fastest time in qualifying at 4:10.275, just 297 thousandths of a second behind Germany (4:09.978). Great Britain posted the best performance (4:08.055). Tomorrow, at 5:05 PM local time (11:05 AM in Italy), the Italians will face Germany in the first round.
In the women's scratch race, Martina Fidanza finished fourth, narrowly missing out on the podium after a race won by Dutch favorite Lorena Wiebes, ahead of Ireland's Lara Gillespie and Portugal's Maria Martins. The Italian suffered a late error, but managed to make up ground in the final 250 meters, but couldn't find a spot on the podium. (PRIMASPORT)
