Italy secured two more medals, including gold in the sailing, bringing the total medal haul to 30 so far. This includes 10 old, 11 silver and 9 bronze.
Italy has now won a total of 30 Olympics medals, including the latest from the water.
Gold for Tita and Banti
Ruggero Tita and Caterina Marianna Banti secured their second consecutive Olympic gold in the mixed multihull on Thursday. Following their triumph at Tokyo 2020, the Italian pair made history in Marseille, becoming the first athletes to win two golds in the event since its debut at Rio 2016.
“We are very happy,” Tita remarked. “We knew before starting this cycle the first thing was to win again the Games. We did it with purpose, we made it.”
The medal race was originally set for Wednesday but was delayed by a day due to a lack of wind.
“Yesterday I was so tired, it was very hot, we waited for two hours in the water,” Banti shared. “I think we recovered well, and this morning we were ready to go out and do our best medal race.”
Men’s Canoe Double grab silver
The Paris 2024 canoe sprint race saw Liu Hao and Ji Bowen from the People’s Republic of China top the Olympic podium in the men’s C-2 500m. By the halfway point, they were nearly two seconds ahead of the field — an almost insurmountable margin.
Italy’s Casadei and Tacchini, who placed seventh at last year’s World Championships, crossed the finish line in 1:41.08 to claim the silver. Their elation was unmistakable. “The Olympics is the biggest competition, so coming home with a medal is always satisfying,” Tacchini shared.
Even with the difficult water conditions -“there were a lot of waves for some reason,” Tacchini observed – they maintained their composure and focus, narrowly beating Spain by just a tenth of a second.
Men’s 4 x 100m team in final
Yesterday the men’s 4 x 100 relay team qualified for the final thanks to a repechage.
In the first semifinal heat, Matteo Melluzzo, Marcell Jacobs, Fausto Desalu and Filippo Tortu closed in fifth position. Only the first three from each semi-final qualified directly for the final, along with two fastest losing teams. The second semifinal was slower which meant Italy was back to defend their men’s 4x100m title in the finals.
The Italians qualified with a time of 38:07seconds.
In addition to Italy, the US, Great Britain, South Africa, China, France, Canada and Japan will compete in the final race scheduled for today.
