When Samuele Ceccarelli upset Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs to win the Italian 60m title a fortnight ago, most observers wrote it off as an anomaly, if not an outright fluke. But in the space of 6.48 seconds at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul on Saturday night, the 23-year-old didn’t just back up that result. He ascended to a whole new level, claiming the European indoor 60m crown from Jacobs and spearheading a superb 1-2 for his nation.

Jacobs finished second in 6.50, a season’s best for the 28-year-old, with Sweden’s Henrik Larsson clocking a national record of 6.53 to win bronze, a mere 0.001 ahead of Poland’s Dominik Kopec, who also clocked 6.53 in fourth. Slovakia's Jan Volko was fifth in 6.57. The victory marks a huge step forward for Ceccarelli, who had a best of 6.72 for 60m before this season, which dated back to 2019.