Olympic 4×100 champion Filippo Tortu has included the Grifone Meeting – Città di Asti i in his preparation for the Rome EC and the Paris Olympics.
In 2024 Tortu, the first Italian to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters (9″99, Madrid 2018) has already raced in Florida (where he closed a training camp in Gainesville with a promising 10″15) and at the World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, where he made a crucial contribution to the Italian team’s qualification for the Paris Games. In Nassau, Tortu ran the final leg of the 4×100, as he did at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics and at the 2023 WC in Budapest, where Italy won a stunning silver medal.
Individually, Tortu has declared his 2024 focus on the 200 meters, harboring strong ambitions for both the EC and the Olympics. He has already met the qualification standard with his PB 20”13 set last July in Molfetta.
On the track of Via Gerbi, Tortu will face another Italian, Samuele Ceccarelli, coming off an unremarkable indoor season after a surprising 60 meters gold medal in 2023 indoor EC, beating Marcell Jacobs with an extraordinary time of 6”47. In the 100 meters, Ceccarelli holds a 10”13 PB (2023).
The rest of the starting list, pending final confirmations, features veteran Cameroonian Emmanuel Eseme, who broke the 10-second mark twice in 2023 with a 9”98 PB. This year, Eseme won in 10”13 the Pan African Games in Accra (Ghana). Portuguese Andre Prazeres (10”13) and Dominican Franquelo Perez (10″18) are also registered.
