Athletics, Iapichino restarts from Padua with a new run-up

Florence, 8 February 2025 – Larissa Iapichino restarts from the PalaIndoor of Padova. Sunday 9 February 2025 at 17pm, the Florentine long jumper will make her seasonal debut and will have the opportunity to test for the first time in a race the new 17-step approach without pre-start, starting from a standstill with the left foot, unlike the 15 steps with pre-start of last season. Initially the debut was scheduled for Dusseldorf, in the Istaf Indoor, Silver test of the Continental Tour Indoor, but the athlete of the Fiamme Oro explained that she had changed her plans because she had been informed only 8 days before the event of the modalities in which the race would be held, that is, as a free throw.

"We had confirmed Larissa's presence already in December, also announcing that the athlete would have done an important test of a new longer run", says Gianni Iapichino, Larissa's father and coach. "We usually keep our commitments - he continues - but they only told us 8 days before the meeting that this novelty would be introduced with the new experimental platform, and this also put us in great difficulty as we had meticulously planned the commitment based on the indoor season, and it was essential for us to compete on that date. We are obviously grateful to Fidal Veneto who inserted a specific race in the context of a regional meeting in Padua, but both Larissa and I remain very bitter about what happened and about the decision to experiment with this new rule in such an important event at an international level. I would like to point out, and I speak without any problems also on behalf of my daughter who shares my opinion, that I am totally against this novelty that would totally distort the discipline, and I am very pleased that there have already been precise positions taken such as that of Olympic champion Tentoglou".

Hence the decision to focus on Padua, Iapichino starts again after a more than positive season that saw her win the Diamond League final (6,80), go on the podium at the European Championships at the Olimpico in Rome with a seasonal best of 6,94 and just shy of the medals at the Paris Olympics, fourth, just nine centimetres from the bronze.

Iapichino confirmed his participation in the Ancona Indoor Championships of February 22-23 and heads straight for Apeldoorn (Holland) for the European Indoor Championships in early March, an event in which two years ago in Istanbul she set a personal best with 6,97, winning the silver medal.