Italian runners coming from nowhere at EUs, Worlds, and Olympics

It’s called development

Whenever it occurs as a national group there's usually one reason for it.

I remember a few years back Italy was near the top of the rankings for most doping violations. Don't know if this is still the case ...

The women's 5k winner finished like she was competing over a fraction of that distance and with no apparent fatigue afterwards. Too good to be true.

This one is hilarious to me. Look at her PR progression.

worldathletics.org

Nadia BATTOCLETTI | Profile | World Athletics

Nadia BATTOCLETTI, Italy - 10,000 Metres, 5000 Metres, 10 Kilometres Road, 5 Kilometres Road, 1500 Metres, 2 Miles, 3000 Metres, 3000 Metres Short Track

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They watched all the races over the previous years and said, "somebody hold my canoli"

You are speaking obviously from experience.

Yeah, no…However, some of those runners were born in different countries, Crippa was born in Ethiopia for instance, and became Italian citizens after a few years of arriving in Italy. Battocletti on the other hand has been very strong in the age groups and XC for the past few years, so her performance doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise. Not everything must have something to do with doping

She didn’t look particularly tired after winning the 10k a few days later (last night). It was noticeable that all the runners after her were lying on the floor after finishing and she was prancing around having barely broken a sweat. It just didn’t look like hard work to her.

However, she is a very strong cross country runner and has won many races so we will have to believe she’s had a good winter and is seeing the benefits now.

It’s the lack of fatigue that perplexes me. Unless she’s just very fit.

Battocletti has improved a minute over the 5k in the last 4 years from aged 20-24, and 2 minutes in the last 6 years. That is a massive improvement at that age. By comparison, it would be like Valby improving from her present 14:52 to 13:52.

The lack of fatigue was very apparent, in addition to the sheer speed of her finish.

You speak of places you're obviously familiar with. But you had the wrong guy - not that it would make any difference with you.

Ok...Ok...But what about the other ones? They gained a lot of medals at Europe Ch., not just 5 and 10km on the track. What gives?

Batocletti has been a big talent since her junior days and I don't think her progression is unexpected. She nearly beat Laura Muir in the European or World Indoors a couple of years ago (I can't recall which). Added to that, she is used to training in the very hot conditions the race last night was run in, and the home crowd atmosphere will have helped, but she was clearly breathing heavily in the last few laps.

Grovdal did a similar double and I would guess that they calculated that with that quick turn around, neither would yet be in recovery mode but would still be operating efficiently.

Theres something going on in Italian coaching at any rate; quite a few British runners are now choosing to be based there as part of training groups. Amy Hunt, the sprinter is one, although she hasn't yet seen a massive improvement, she did make a final.

Well if we want to try to think positively, it's not uncommon for a country to do quite a lot better when they are hosting