Samuele Ceccarelli
Samuele Ceccarelli is an Italian sprinter. He won the gold medal in the 60 metres at the 2023 European Indoor Championships, defeating compatriot and Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs.
Ceccarelli won the Italian 60 m title in 2023, beating Jacobs as well.
Career
Samuele Ceccarelli trained in karate initially until the age of 15. He switched to athletics at age 16.He won several medals at the national under-20 level between 2018 and 2019. In January 2019, the 19-year-old set a 60 metres personal best of 6.72 seconds while still an U20 athlete.
His progress in following three years was hampered by persistent injuries and frequent micro-fractures.
In February 2023, he won his first national senior title with 60 m victory at the Italian Athletics Indoor Championships in Ancona, beating Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs. Ceccarelli repeated that feat on a European stage at Istanbul 2023 the following month for an Italian 1–2. He set a new personal best of 6.47 s in the semi-finals to move up to second on the Italian all-time list and fifth on the European one.