Carlo Tacchini and Gabriele Casadei take silver in the C2 500: Italia Team reaches 30 medals at Paris 2024

Carlo Tacchini and Gabriele Casadei added another medal to Italia Team's tally, bringing the total to 30 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

At the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the Azzurri crew claimed silver in the C2 500, bringing an Italian two-man canoe back to the Olympic podium 64 years after Aldo Dezi and Francesco La Macchia's second-place finish at Rome 1960 (in the C2 1000).

Casadei and Tacchini (photo by Luca Pagliaricci/CONI) had an extraordinary journey, finishing second in their heat to earn a direct spot in the semi-finals, avoiding the quarter-finals. They subsequently finished third in the semi-final, securing a place in Final A. In the final, after a slow start, they mounted an exceptional comeback, finishing in 1:41.08, just behind the Chinese duo of Hao Liu and Bowen Ji (1:39.48). The podium was completed by Spain's Joan Antoni Moreno and Diego Dominguez (1:41.18), who narrowly beat the neutral athletes Zakhar Petrov and Alexey Korovashkov (1:41.27).