Olympics-Short track-Italy clinches second gold as Fontana leads mixed relay victory

By Francesca Landini and Gianluca Semeraro

MILAN, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Arianna Fontana, Italy’s most decorated winter Olympian, led her team to gold in the mixed short track relay at the Milano Cortina Games on Tuesday.

It was the second gold for hosts Italy after Francesca Lollobrigida in 3,000 metres speed skating on Saturday.

The four Italian skaters – Fontana, Elisa Confortola, Thomas Nadalini and Pietro Sighel – clocked two minutes 39.019 seconds over 2000 metres in the final to beat Canada and Belgium, second and third respectively, at Milan’s ice skating arena.

Italy, silver medallists in 2022 with a team featuring Fontana, seized control around halfway and stayed in front to the finish.

“Being on the Olympic podium is always emotional. And with the home crowd, seeing my family, our families there getting emotional, maybe even more than we were, it was magical,” Fontana told reporters.

With 12 Olympic medals, Fontana needs only one more to match fencing champion Edoardo Mangiarotti’s record for the most Olympic medals by any Italian.

Despite not making it to the final, the Dutch team set a new Olympic record at two minutes 35.537 in the B Final between the four non-qualifying teams.

South Korea, one of the pre-race favourites, failed to reach the final after one of the team had a collision with an American skater in the semi-finals.

The short track mixed team relay became an official Olympic event at the 2022 Beijing Games, where China won gold.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Gianluca Semeraro in Milan; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Keith Weir)