Giovanni De Benedictis

Giovanni De Benedictis (born January 8, 1968 in Pescara ) is a former Italian walker .

The 1987 European Junior Champion in 10,000-meter walking finished ninth in 20 km walking at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul . At the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 1989 in The Hague, he won bronze over 5000 meters behind Mikhail Schchennikow from the USSR and Roman Mrázek from the Czech Republic. A year later he won silver behind Shchennikov at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow , and at the European Championships in Split he was eighth over 20 km.

At the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Seville in 1991 , the previous indoor world record holder Franz Kostjukewitsch from the USSR only won bronze, while Shchennikov and De Benedictis both undercut his world record. Shchennikov won in an extremely close decision in 18: 23.55 minutes ahead of De Benedictis in 18: 23.60 minutes. In the summer of the World Championships in Tokyo , De Benedictis finished fourth over 20 km in 1:20:29 min.

In 1992 he won the European Indoor Championships in Genoa in 18: 19.97 minutes ahead of Kostjukewitsch. At the Olympic Games in Barcelona he won bronze in 1:23:11 h behind local hero Daniel Plaza and Canadian Guillaume LeBlanc . A year later at the World Championships in Stuttgart he won silver in 1:23:06 h behind the Spaniard Valentí Massana . Also at the European Championships in Helsinki in 1994 he was behind Massana, by six seconds he missed the bronze medal in 1:20:39 h, while Shchennikov won safely ahead of the Belarusian Jauhen Misjulja .

At the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, the Italian Michele Didoni won ahead of Massana. De Benedictis crossed the finish line in third place, but was subsequently disqualified for lack of ground contact and lost his medal to Misjulja.

After that, De Benedictis won no more medals. He finished eighth at the World Championships in Athens in 1997 and Seville in 1999 . In Sydney at the 2000 Olympic Games , he was sixteenth.

Giovanni De Benedictis is 1.80 m tall and weighed 58 kg at competition times. He started for the Carabinieri Bologna.

Best times

• 5000 m (hall): 18: 19.97 min, February 28, 1992, Genoa
• 20 km: 1:20:29 h, August 24, 1991, Tokyo
• 50 km : 3:48:06 h, March 3, 2002, Vittorio Veneto

literature

• Peter Matthews: Athletics 2001. Worcester 2001, ISBN 1-899807-11-X

Web links

• Giovanni De Benedictis in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait ( memento from February 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) at FIDAL