Italian Filippo Tortu Opens Season With 9.97 Over 100m in Rieti

Italy's Filippo Tortu opened his 2018 season clocking 9.97 seconds over 100m at the Riunione Nazionale Della Velocita, a sprint events only meeting, in Rieti on Friday.

The 2017 European U20 sprint champion clocked a time that was 0.02 seconds faster than his Italian record but his winning time of 9.97 seconds was achieved above the legal limit at 2.4 m/s. 

The next race for the 20-year-old Tortu will be the 200m race at the Rome Diamond League on 6 June where he will go against World champion Ramil Guliyev and Noah Lyles from the United States.

“I can say that I felt very good in the last few meters, I tried to relax, to use only my feet, raise my knees. Unfortunately there was wind, but here I was racing against one of the strongest sprinters in the world: after the first 50 meters I thought only to be relaxed and the time has come.” Tortu told Fidal.it.

100m Final Results | Full Meet results here