Italy’s roller skiing team bids farewell to Madona and a World Championships with 4 medals; the latest comes from Boccardi in the Mass Start

A World Championships yielding four medals, with Lele Becchis’ title, his fifth in the Sprint, still shining brightly.

Today in Madona, the roller skiing World Championships came to a close, with Italy once again taking a place on the podium thanks to Maria Eugenia Boccardi; the young athlete from Trentino, already a silver medallist in the Team Sprint with Ghiddi, was beaten only in the group sprint of the women’s senior skating Mass Start.

She won again: Norway’s Ragnhild Aarekol, with Poland’s Magdalena Kobielusz taking silver and Anna Maria Ghiddi finishing eighth.

In the men’s event, which brought the World Championships in Latvia to a close over the 21.2 km mass start course, Raimo Vigants’ star shone in the sprint as he celebrated on home roads, overcoming the resistance of Sweden’s Simon Karlsson and Germany’s Thomas Bing. Tommaso Dellagiacoma took 4^th place after a superb race, finishing ahead of Ukraine’s Lisohor, the other Swede Fransson and Giovanni Lorenzetti, 7^th for an Italian team that also claimed 16^th place with Riccardo Lorenzo Masiero, while Riccardo Munari finished 25^th.

Among the juniors, the ever-reliable Emilie Ruud Lia delivered another title for Norway, beating Sweden’s Lisa Alrik and Matilda Grahn by a couple of seconds, while Italy placed Maria Invernizzi 9^th, Nicole Falanelli 19^th and Aurora Invernizzi 21^st.

The men’s race in the category saw Sweden triumph, with Valter Blomberg Gerle edging compatriots Ville Jutterdal and Theo Malm; a fourth-place finish went to the consistent and dependable Stefano Epis, who came within a step of the medal, with good results for the Italian team also from Sartori (7^th), followed by Tazzioli (27^th) and Piccinini, 30^th at the finish.