Stefano Tilli

Stefano Tilli medal table
sprinter
Italy
World championships
silver	1983 Helsinki	4 × 100 m
European championships
bronze	1990 split	4 × 100 m
European Indoor Championships
gold	1985 Piraeus	200 m
gold	1983 Budapest	60 m

Stefano Tilli (born August 22, 1962 in Orvieto ) is a former Italian athlete who can look back on an extremely long international sprinter career spanning almost two decades . Between 1984 and 2000 he took part in the Olympic Games four times.

Career

Internationally, he made his first appearance by winning the title in the 60-meter run at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 1983 in Budapest. However, he celebrated the most important success of his career six months later in Helsinki at the first World Athletics Championships. The Italian team won the 4 x 100 meter relay in the line-up Stefano Tilli, Carlo Simionato , Pierfrancesco Pavoni and Pietro Mennea with a national record time of 38.73 s, the silver medal behind the US relay (37.86 s, world record at the time).

Tilli took part in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1984 in Los Angeles . There he took fourth place with the Italian relay. In the 100-meter run and in the 200-meter run , he reached the semi-finals. In 1985 he achieved his second title at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Piraeus, this time over 200 m. After that, however, he struggled with persistent Achilles tendon problems that stayed with him for the rest of his career.

At the European Athletics Championships in 1986 in Stuttgart, Tilli reached fifth place with the relay. He achieved the same placement at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. He finally won a medal again in 1990 at the European Athletics Championships in Split . The Italian relay team, made up of Mario Longo , Ezio Madonia , Sandro Floris and Stefano Tilli, took the bronze medal in 38.39 s, behind the teams of France (37.79 s, world record at the time) and Great Britain (37.98 s). Tilli finished fourth in the 200-meter run. At the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in 1991 , he finished fifth with the relay.

After a few years with injury problems, Tilli started again in the 100 meter run at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , but failed in the preliminary round. At the World Athletics Championships in Athens in 1997 , he reached the quarter-finals over the same distance. He scored a respectable success at the European Athletics Championships in Budapest in 1998 with fourth place in the 200-meter run. Surprisingly, he achieved the same placement at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2000 in Ghent over 60 m, when he achieved a personal best at 6.59 seconds at the age of 37. After the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, where he was eliminated over 100 m in the quarter-finals, he ended his active career.

Further successes (selection)

• 100 m:
  • Italian Championships: Winner 1984, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1997
  • Mediterranean Games : Winner 1987, third 1983
• 200 m:
  • Italian Championships: Winner 1986, 1988, 1991
  • Mediterranean Games: Winner 1987, 1991
  • IAAF Grand Prix Final : Third in 1989

Others

Stefano Tilli started for CUS Roma , Snam Gas Metano and Fabrizio Lepore , among others . After the end of his sporting career, he worked as a television commentator and as a manager of several top athletes, including his former partner Merlene Ottey . He also runs a physiotherapy practice. Tilli is married and has a son.

Top performances

• 60 m (hall): 6.59 s, February 27, 2000, Gent
• 100 m: 10.16 s, August 22, 1984, Zurich
• 200 m: 20.40 s, September 9, 1984, Cagliari
• 200 m (hall): 20.52 s, February 21, 1985, Turin

Web links

• Stefano Tilli in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Stefano Tilli in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• European Athletic Association : Euro Legends: Stefano Tilli , January 16, 2007