Italy wins two silver medals in team pursuit at the Shanghai track worlds
Denmark beat Italy's men's quartet in the final on 15 October, and Great Britain edged out the Italian women's team in their gold-medal race in Shanghai.
Men's team pursuit final
Denmark won the men's team pursuit final in Shanghai in 3'40"865, while Filippo Ganna, Jonathan Milan, Francesco Lamon and Alessio Magagnotti took silver in 3'45"596. Italy had been behind from the first lap, and the Danish quartet (Carl-Frederik Bévort, Rasmus Pedersen, Lasse Norman Leth and Frederik Madsen) built its lead from five tenths of a second in the first kilometre to more than a second, then kept widening the gap to the finish.
Rai reported that Denmark had improved by more than three seconds on its Wednesday time. The Italian time was slower than the 3'45"332 the team posted in the previous round to beat Great Britain. Adnkronos noted that the silver was Italy's first medal at these championships and its first return to the world podium in the event since 2023.
- Denmark (gold)
- 220.865 seconds
- Italy (silver)
- 225.596 seconds
Women's team pursuit
Italy's women reached the gold-medal final in qualifying with 4'06"771, 914 thousandths faster than Germany. Great Britain beat the Netherlands in that round with 4'07"238.
In the final, Elisa Balsamo, Martina Fidanza and Vittoria Guazzini started in front but gave way after the halfway point. Great Britain won in 4'04"610, with a margin of 5"357 over the Italian quartet. ANSA described it as Italy's second silver of the championships, following the men's race.
Medal context
The two silvers came on the same day in Shanghai, one from each Italian team pursuit squad. In both finals the winning crews were the ones that led from the early stages, while the Italian riders faded in the second half of the race.
