Stefano Mei

Stefano Mei (born February 3, 1963 in La Spezia ) is a former Italian middle and long distance runner. With a height of 1.82 m, his competition weight was 66 kg.

With one gold, one silver and one bronze medal each at European Championships, Mei was one of the group of long-distance runners from Italy who dominated Europe in the 1980s.

At the World Athletics Championships in 1983 and at the Olympic Games in 1984 Stefano Mei was eliminated in the semifinals of the 1500-meter run . At the European Indoor Championships in 1986, with a second place over 3000 meters behind the Austrian Dietmar Millonig , he indicated that he could be expected on longer distances in the future.

On the very first day of the 1986 European Championships , the 10,000 meter run was held. The favorite was Alberto Cova , who had recently won all the major championship races. The race was held at a slow pace because the three Italians Cova, Salvatore Antibo and Mei were all sure that they would be fast enough in the sprint, and the other runners at least had a lot of respect for Cova and Antibo. As expected, the three Italians were ahead in the final sprint. Only the order was surprising, because Mei won in 27: 56.79 minutes ahead of Cova and Antibo.

Antibo, Cova and Mei easily qualified for the final of the 5000 meter run - five days later. The three Britons Jack Buckner , Tim Hutchings and Steve Ovett also qualified . The British had drawn their conclusions from the strolling race over the long distance and set a brisk pace that Ovett was the first to be unable to follow. But Antibo and Cova also had to let go. Ultimately, Buckner won in 13: 10.15 minutes ahead of Mei in 13: 11.57 minutes and Hutchings.

At the 1988 Olympic Games , Mei was seventh over 5000 meters. He also took this place at the European Championships in 1990 over 5000 meters. Salvatore Antibo ran away from all other runners over 10,000 meters and won confidently in 27: 41.27 minutes, followed by a tight sprint for the other medals, which the Norwegian Are Nakkim (28: 04.04 minutes) ahead of Stefano Mei ( 28: 04.46 min) won.

Web links

• Stefano Mei in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Interview: Stefano Mei