Lisa Vittozzi hits the mark straight away at the Italian summer championships: women’s Sprint win, Davide Compagnoni pulls off a shock in the men’s event

The Grogg Biathlon Centre, in the heart of Val Martello, opened the Italian summer championships with the discipline’s Sprints, which fully lived up to expectations—with Lisa Vittozzi triumphing in the women’s event, at least, since among the men there was a shock result as young Davide Compagnoni finished ahead of the heavily favoured Lukas Hofer, fresh from third place at the Dresden City Biathlon, just like the Olympic champion.

With one of the best men’s shooting performances, Davide Compagnoni claimed an impressive victory over the 10 km course. The 21-year-old from Valfurva, representing the C.S. Carabinieri, produced a superb performance, making just one standing error, and finished 21”1 ahead of Hofer (two missed targets) and 37” ahead of David Zingerle, who missed three times at the range.

Patrick Braunhofer secured fourth place, followed by Nicola Romanin.

Among the athletes competing in the women’s Sprint, the clear standout name was Lisa Vittozzi, and the Sappada star did not disappoint: with one prone error, the queen of the Olympic Pursuit at Milano Cortina 2026 beat Rebecca Passler by 15” and Hannah Auchentaller by 20”, with both of them shooting clean.

Fabiana Carpella finished just off the podium, with the Aosta Valley’s Samuela Comola in fifth.

Thursday will see the second and final day of competition in this edition of the Italian Summer Championships in Val Martello; the men’s Pursuit will start at 9:30 a.m., with the athletes facing 12.5 kilometres on roller skis and four shooting bouts, while at 10:20 a.m. it will be the women’s turn over 10 km.

Meanwhile, the Italian junior team will begin an extensive training camp in Forni Avoltri on Thursday 27 August. The camp is scheduled to end on 6 September, with technical director Klaus Hoellrigl calling up eight athletes for the occasion: Nayeli Mariotti Cavagnet, Carlotta Gautero, Gaia Gondolo, Hannes Bacher, Julian Huber, Manuel Contoz, Jonas Tscholl and Matilde Giordano.

Andreas Braunhofer and Simone Motta will also join their teammates from 2 September. Training will be overseen by coaches Mirco Romanin, Luca Ghiglione, Dominik Windisch and Simon Leitgeb.