ROME (ITALPRESS) – “I had said in 2023 that that would be an unrepeatable year, then the medal in the Olympics did so much more. After 36 years to reach an individual medal in an Olympics is so much stuff, we are happy and I would give a half grade more than 2023, so if it was a 9 let’s say 9.5. I keep the 10 in suspense because even among the women, between Elena Micheli and Alice Sotero, we could have taken a medal and instead the Games are a jackpot and it went another way.” This was said by the president of the Italian Modern Pentathlon Federation, Fabrizio Bittner, during an interview at the Rome office of Italpress. At the Paris 2024 Olympics came Giorgio Malan’s historic bronze medal in the men’s event. And now the gaze is all turned to the four-year Olympic period that has just begun and the 2028 Los Angeles Games: “The Italian pentathlon has the ambition to take two medals in Los Angeles,” announced the Fipm’s number one, “We will prepare for that, we have a group of athletically talented young people. We count on having a competitive team and we count on qualifying two men and two women. And then definitely try to compete and keep the medal. I believe Giorgio Malan will work toward an even higher goal.” Last October Bittner was re-elected to the leadership of the federation, “I never imagined a federation among the top in Italy for results, but we can still improve,” he stressed, “I am extremely satisfied and happy, hoping for even better results, and we will definitely work to make that happen. There will be a change in the Olympic program, in fact, equitation will be replaced by the obstacle discipline. “We experienced a phantasmagorical Olympics in that Versailles setting, never seen in a pentathlon competition with more than 30,000 spectators. But from now on there will be the hurdles discipline, and our goal is to increase the numbers and the spread of the sport because at the youth level we will have an easier time getting participants. This will definitely be one of our main goals,” Bittner concluded.- photo Italpress -(ITALPRESS).
