Pasqualino Abeti

Pasqualino Abeti was an Italian track sprinter. Born in Central Italy, he ran for the clubs Unipol Reggio Emilia and Alco Rieti and, at only 21-years-old, he won both the 100 and 200 metres events at the 1969 National Championships, a feat that he repeated six years later. At the European Championships in Athens in 1969, he reached the final in the 200 metres, coming in seventh place with 21.18 in a race won by the Swiss Clerc. Two years later Abeti acquired his first international medals, both in the 4x100 relay - bronze at the Helsinki Europeans (39.78 behind Czechoslovakia and Poland) and gold (39.7, ahead of Yugoslavia and Morocco) at the Mediterranean Games.

On 21 July 1972, a month before the Olympics, Abeti in the third leg and accompanied by Franco Ossola, Luigi Benedetti and Pietro Mennea, set the world record (1:21.5 and an average of about 20.4 each) in the 4x200 metre relay on the new track of Barletta, Mennea’s home city. In front of an attendance of 12,000, the Italian team defeated an international squad from the United States and Trinidad and Tobago, with Bob Steele, Charles Joseph, Edwin Roberts and the future 1976 Olympic gold medalist Hasely Crawford (1:22.7). At the München Games Abeti was eliminated in the second round of 200 metres and was seventh in the relay final.

After poor results at the 1974 Roma Europeans in the 400 metres (last in his heat with 47.80), Abeti won two more medals at the 1975 Mediterranean Games - bronze in the 200 m. behind Mennea (20.52) and Predrag Krizan (YUG) and silver (39.56) in the relay behind France. From 1968-77 he earned 33 international caps. Nationally, he won 7 individual titles: 100 m. (1969, 1975), 200 m. (1969, 1975), 60 m. indoor (1970), 200 m. indoor (1980) and 400 m. indoor (1973). In honor of his sporting achievements, Abetii was awarded a gold medal by the Italian Olympic Committee.

Personal Best: 200 – 20.7 (1972).