The spotlights are on the Molfetta track: on the weekend of the absolute championships on Saturday at 7.45 pm, with the battery, the challenge for the conquest of the Italian title over 100 meters will begin. And in the absence of Marcell Jacobs, still struggling with his injury, attention is focused on Samuele Ceccarelli. “It's definitely a good testing ground, you get there with certain premises and certain expectations, the competition is very high. No one should be underestimated or overestimated, you have to be careful of everyone and of myself,” the European 60m indoor champion explains to LaPresse. "The goal is to try to win, it's plan A as for everyone - he adds - the rest of the plans all come together, to do the best possible". The athlete is fresh from the excellent performance in the 4×100 in Grosseto, when with 38.04 the team secured qualification for the world championships: "I'm sorry that after the good result, two out of four teammates had problems (Filippo Tortu and Lorenzo Patta, ed), we hope they will recover and recover soon so that we can offer a good performance again in Budapest”, he explains. “We are a group of friends, a united group. It is more difficult to run alone than to run the relay – he says – you always give your best, then you know that many things can happen in the changeovers but we all run together ”.
Budapest is certainly also a personal goal: "it will be another good competition, literally with the best in the world, you have to interpret it, get there with the right psychological orientation". Preparation goes on, "I train in Pietrasanta, close to home, since I live in Massa, in the heat you go out at 5", and at the World Championships "it won't be easy at all but you have to give your best and see what it will be".
On the rivalry with Jacobs:
Ceccarelli's exploit arrived in February, when at the Assoluti Indoor in Ancona he beat Marcell Jacobs on 60 meters. From there, the attention - and pressure - in the media and even the ink spent on his rivalry with the world champion grew. “You have to face things in the right way, knowing that everyone is always racing against everyone,” he observes. "It's okay for the newspapers to try to create this competition, you have to know it and take it for what it is - he adds - the most important thing is to indulge yourself, certainly you feel the greater attention from people but few know what's there behind the training there are dynamics unknown to most”. As for the challenge between the two of them, "we hope to see him soon, in competition, athletics and competition would benefit, it is a stimulus". Certainly it is the fact of having seen the Italian expedition achieve unprecedented results in terms of speed at the Tokyo Olympics, "saying we did it leads me to think that maybe in Paris, when I could be there too, we can do it again".
Towards Paris 2024
The 23-year-old Tuscan, registered with the Atletica Firenze Marathon, arrived at athletics 16 years after karate, which he practiced for 7 years. “I think a lot of what you get comes from how you approach it, the right mindset makes your legs spin“. Unlike many other athletes, no mental coach, "I take advantage of the advice of the people around me, my parents, my coach, my girlfriend, who try to make me see things in the right way, who are close to me and live directly with me, in first person and a half everything that happens to me, I'm lucky to have these people who are always there, not just when I'm on the track". Wishes for the route from here to Paris? “Being able to win some other big appointments, getting there with the stability with which I have arrived at this point and being able to maintain the same kind of approach”.
© Copyright LaPresse - Reproduction reserved
Tags: Athletics, marcell jacobs, Samuele Ceccarelli
