November 5, 2024 Stories of sport and life
Real unique character.
Marcello Fiasconaro. Sports from the 70’s still relevant today
There is a part of the sport of the 1970s that is not yet history, legend, past, but still incredibly relevant, alive, present.
The world and the sport have made great strides in terms of facilities, equipment, clothing, nutrition, medicine (can we whisper “doping”?), preparation, laboratory, media visibility and globalization.
However, there is one Italian record that, despite all this, no one has been able to break.
We are talking about the absolute national record in the 800 meters (1’43″7), still held today by a truly unique, Italian and, above all, very famous character : Marcello Fiasconaro.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 19, 1949, the son of Italian parents (his father was born in Castelbuono, Sicily), Marcello spent his entire youth in Cape Town and would have stayed there for the rest of his life if the former discus thrower Carmelo Rado had not spotted him out of nowhere and told FIDAL about his extraordinary physical and athletic talents.
Marcello, by the way, did not start his competitive activity with athletics, but with rugby, so much so that his first victory in the 400 meters in 48.5 seconds came relatively late, at the age of 21 (on November 7, 1970).
By the end of December, he had already managed to reduce his time by 2 seconds (46.5), placing him among the 70 best athletes in the world and attracting the attention of our federation, which was able to convince him to choose Italian citizenship and come to run in our country.
On July 1, 1971, having just landed in Italy and with an interpreter at his side, he took part in his first race in rugby kit, with white-green stripes, and immediately won with a time of 46.7.
Friendly and outgoing, with a distinctive beard and long hair, the following week he won the Absolute Italian Championships at the Olympic Stadium in Rome with an incredible 45.7, breaking the previous national record set in 1968.
Marcello was not registered with any club, which cost him a complaint from several teams who denied that “the foreigner” did not have the necessary documents to participate in the Absolute Championships.
However, the president of the federation, Nebiolo, promptly rejects the appeal on the grounds of incorrect form, and seventeen days later Fiasconaro is able to break the newly won national record again with a great 45.5.
The following month, Marcello wins the first “heavy” medal for the Italian colors, winning silver in the 400 meters at the European Championships in Helsinki with a time of 45.49, which – if it is not the still unbeaten mythical 800 meters record mentioned at the beginning – represents the first Italian record in the 400 meters, recorded with electronic timing, and an excellent record that will stand for a good 10 years, until 1981.
In the same competition he also won a bronze medal in the 4×400 relay.
Fiasconaro is also remembered as the athlete who forced the International Federation to change the starting procedure for the 800-meter races, eliminating the “ready” command and leaving only the “on your marks” command, followed by the traditional gunshot that starts the race.
This was the result of an incident during the 1973 Men’s European Championships at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo.
In fact, the athlete’s body movements during the very long pauses between the various commands given by the starter led to the disqualification of the “march”, amidst the whistles of the disappointed public who had not been able to see our star athlete in action, and the paraphernalia generated by the invasion of the track by some of our officials and athletes in a desperate attempt to have the disqualification overturned.
The excessive rigidity of the Norwegian judges, together with the responsibility that even the Italian press attributed to Fiasconaro, contributed greatly to the IAAF’s decision to change the ambiguous procedure.
On 27 June 1973, in the Milan Arena, Marcello put the seal on his fantastic career by setting the 800 metres world record in a legendary race, dominating the competition from start to finish and beating the favoured Czechoslovakian Jozef Plachy.
His time of 1’43″7 remained the best in the world until 1976, while we are still waiting for an Italian athlete to break this record at national level.
After completing his short athletics career with 5 Italian titles, 8 national records, a world indoor record and the legendary record mentioned above, Marcello played a few seasons of rugby in Milan before returning to South Africa for good in 1978 with his wife Sally and daughter Gianna.
