Inspired by family and Roman medals, Furlani and Iapichino have high hopes for Paris | FUNCTIONALITY

Young Italians Mattia Furlani and Larissa Iapichino don’t aim to simply follow in their respective parents’ footsteps. They seek – literally – to go above and beyond their expectations.

Having international athlete parents, Furlani and Iapichino were both exposed to the sport from a young age. And that, in turn, has led them to break U20 long jump world records and win major medals in recent years.

Most recently, they both delighted the home crowd by winning silver at the European Championships in Rome – with Furlani improving his own U20 world record to 8.38m and Iapichino threatening the seven-metre mark again with 6, 94 m.

“This is an important step. I’m still growing in all aspects, but I’m on the right track,” Furlani explained after finishing second behind Olympic and world champion Miltiadis Tentoglou at the Stadio Olimpico. “I made a few small technical mistakes, but I just have to stay focused and continue to work well. A champion like Tentoglou has won and that’s the beauty of this sport, a challenge that motivates us both.

Iapichino also remained motivated for more, despite achieving her third best jump ever to finish second behind another multiple world gold medalist, Malaika Mihambo.

“I had a consistently good performance, maybe my best run ever,” said the 21-year-old. “But I really wanted to jump more than seven meters.”

From basketball to jumps

At 19, Furlani – a world indoor silver medalist in Glasgow in March – already has plenty of experience in the sport.

“I grew up in a family of athletes,” says the teenager, whose sister Erika and brother Luca are also athletes. “I started with the high jump; my father (Marcello, jumper at 2.27 m) taught me to jump and passed on his passion to me. My mother Khaty Seck, who was a Senegalese sprinter, shaped me as an athlete in the show jumping disciplines.

“I also played basketball for five years, which improved my coordination, especially when jumping. I am proud of what my parents did for me and their support.

Furlani started out at his local athletics club Studentesca Rieti and showed his talent by finishing seventh in the high jump at the 2021 European U20 Championships at the age of 16. The following year he jumped 7.87m at the Italian U18 Championships, crushing the U18 National Championship in the process. long jump record, and also won the high jump with 2.16 m.

A month later, he repeated this double at the U18 European Championships in Jerusalem, winning the long jump with an Italian U18 record of 8.04 m and the high jump title with 2.15 m.

“It was like a dream to jump over the eight meter barrier. I didn’t expect it and I didn’t even look at the screen because I didn’t believe it. Emotions were very high,” he said.

It was just the beginning. In 2023, Furlani reached a wind-assisted speed of 8.44 m (2.2 m/s) in Savona, achieving the longest mark ever achieved by a U20 long jumper in all conditions.

“I went crazy when I saw the distance on the board. I felt like Spider-Man,” he said. “The wind measurement came out shortly after, but it didn’t change my reaction. What surprised me was that I I jumped further than Carl Lewis in my age group. He’s like a god to me.

The records continue to fall

Eleven days later, Furlani jumped 8.24m to win in Hengelo, bettering the Italian under-20 record held by Andrew Howe, the 2007 world silver medalist who also grew up in Rieti. Furlani’s exploits earned him praise not only from Howe, but also from one Gianmarco Tamberi – Olympic and world high jump champion – who described his young teammate as “the diamond of Italian athletics”.

After making his world debut for Italy in 2022 at the U20 World Championships in Cali, where he again competed in the long jump and high jump, Furlani made his first senior team at the World Championships in 2023, a few weeks after winning the U20 European Length Championship. show jumping title with a jump of 8.23m which bettered the 36-year-old championship record.

He maintained his impressive form until 2024. Jumping 8.34m at the Italian Indoor Championships, he missed the U20 world record by just one centimeter and bettered Howe’s long-standing Italian indoor record. He brought this experience with him to the major stage the following month, winning his first senior international medal at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

At 19 years and 24 days old, Furlani became the youngest athlete to win a world indoor medal in the horizontal jumps. And he made even more history in Savona a few months later, jumping 8.36m to improve the U20 world record by a centimeter.

“This means that we are working well and on the right track, on the eve of two very important events like the European Championships in Rome and the Olympic Games in Paris,” he said at the time.

Now that one of those major events is over – Furlani having added two centimeters to his U20 world record to win his silver medal in Rome – he has his sights set on the Olympics, while still being eligible to compete in another event global. , the U20 World Championships in Lima, later in August.

Furlani’s medal in Rome meant even more as it came as part of a very successful championship for the hosts. Italy tops the medal table with 24 medals, eight more than any other nation.

Among her fellow medalists was Iapichino, who Furlani describes as “like a second sister.”

“We grew up in athletic families and we are both coached by our parents,” he added, along with Iapichino, the daughter of multiple world gold and Olympic silver medalist Fiona May.

Family inspiration

Like Furlani, Iapichino – who did gymnastics before focusing on athletics – enjoyed great success in his age group on his way to the senior stage. She won her first major long jump title in 2019, jumping 6.58m to win gold at the European U20 Championships in Boras, following in the footsteps of May who won the same title in Birmingham in 1987.

Records would follow. In February 2021, the 18-year-old broke Heike Drechsler’s U20 indoor world record with 6.91m to win at the Italian Indoor Championships in Ancona. The mark added three centimeters to the record set in 1983, 19 years before Iapichino was born, and she also tied the senior national indoor record set by her mother in 1998.

“It was a dream come true,” said Iapichino, who finished fifth at the European Indoor Championships in Torun. “The first thing I thought was, ‘I jumped like my mother.’ It was only later that I realized that 6.91m was the U20 world record. »

An injury dashed Iapichino’s Olympic dreams that year, but the season saw a significant change in her training structure, as she began to be guided by her father Gianni, a multiple national vault champion pole vault and heptathlon.

“This setback helped me bounce back,” she remembers. “There were disappointments, but they definitely gave me experience and made me grow. They are necessary. I am sure that such moments are always necessary and also allow us to enjoy the beautiful moments when they arise.

The medals at the top

2022 was a year of transition and after making her senior international debut at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, she donned the Italian vest again at the World Championships in Oregon and finished fifth at the European Championships in Munich.

Returning to the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul the following March, Iapichino jumped 6.97m to take silver and break the national indoor record she shared with her mother.

She then earned her first Diamond League victory in her hometown of Florence, jumping 6.79m at the Luigi Ridolfi Stadium, where she trains every day.

“It was just wonderful to win my first competition in my hometown,” she said. “It was like a dream to beat Malaika Mihambo and Ivana Vuleta. We are rivals on the track, but we are very good friends.

Iapichino won his second Diamond League competition in Stockholm and continued his successful season by winning European Under-23 gold in Espoo, setting an outdoor personal best of 6.93m. Five days later, Iapichino won her third Diamond League in Monaco with another outdoor best of 6.95 m, becoming the most successful Italian athlete in Diamond League history.

She ended the year by finishing fifth in her debut at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, the city in which her mother won European silver with an Italian record of 7.11 m in 1998.

And after finishing seventh at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March, Iapichino turned her attention to Rome, where her podium finish became even more special when she received her medal from her mother.

“I always try to surpass myself, improve jump after jump, competition after competition,” said Iapichino, who has the Paris Olympics as his next big goal. “I’m never satisfied, but now I’m going to enjoy this medal.”

Diego Sampaolo for World Athletics