Kelly Doualla wins European gold in the 100m Under 20, another feat for the fifteen-year-old from Lombardy

Kelly Doualla is overwhelming. Another victory and another 100-meter title: at fifteen years and 261 days old, she's the European Under-20 champion, winning in Tampere by a wide margin in 11:22. Great Britain's Mabel Akande finished second with a time of 11:41, and Ukraine's Uliana Stepaniuk (11:53) finished third, just one hundredth of a second ahead of Italy's Alice Pagliarini, who finished fourth in 11:54. Her reaction time at the start was impressive: 0.115 seconds, followed by a powerful transition between the initial acceleration and the sprint, which Doualla transformed into a relentless progression all the way to the finish line, crossing with a roar of joy. She was just one hundredth of a second short of matching her Italian U20 record, but she did set another record: no athlete so young had ever won in 28 editions.

Three weeks after the victory in Skopje

This is the fifteen-year-old's second title in about twenty days, following her Under-18 win at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Skopje, North Macedonia. She showed no signs of slowing down on either occasion, winning comfortably. Britain's Akande, who won silver, is 18, while Ukraine's Stepaniuk (bronze) is 17. Kelly, on the other hand, is still in her first season as a junior. Born in Pavia on November 20, 2009, to parents of Cameroonian origin, the new phenomenon of Italian athletics is coached by Walter Monti in San Donato Milanese, and wears the colors of Cus Pro Patria Milano.

Gold and record for Saracens

But Italy in Tampere didn't stop with Kelly Doualla's feat. A couple of hours earlier, an Italian athlete made it clear on her first jump who was the most ambitious: Erika Saraceni in the triple jump, immediately tying her own Italian junior record of 14.08. She then landed a jump of 14.15 in the wind (+2.1) on her third attempt, and at one point seemed on the verge of settling. Instead, she returned to the runway for her final jump and delivered a performance of absolute excellence, beyond the confines of youth competition: 14.24 in zero wind on her final attempt, improving by sixteen centimeters, becoming the seventh-best Italian athlete ever and breaking the event record. As in Doualla's case, she had a huge advantage over the second-place finisher: almost half a meter (49 centimeters) ahead of Romania's Vrinceanu (13.75).

Inzoli silver in the long jump

In the long jump, the not-yet-17-year-old Daniele Inzoli took silver with 7.69m, gaining a place on his final jump thanks to his second-best measurement, after starting with a millimetric zero around eight meters: he is back on the podium, a year after winning bronze at the U18 European Championships.