Pasquale Giannattasio

Pasquale Giannattasio was an Italian sprinter who held the the national 100 metres record from 1967-72. He joined the Fiamme Gialle (Tax Police) Sports Group in 1961 and between 1965-67 won three consecutive Italian 100m titles, plus one relay title. Also in 1967 Giannattasio equalled Livio Berruti´s Italian record twice in one day in a pre-Olympic event in the altitude of Mexico City. Giannattasio also set the Italian 4x100 metres relay record in 1964 along with Berruti, Sergio Ottolina, and Ennio Preatoni.

Giannattasio won 22 international caps and took part in the Tokyo Olympics, where he was seventh in the 4x100 relay final. At the 1966 European Championships in Budapest he was eighth in the 100m. Giannattasio achieved an even better result at the 1967 European Indoor Championships in Prague by winning the 50m title. He won two relay golds at the Mediterranean Games (1963 and 1967) and an individual 100 silver in 1967.

After finishing his competitive career Giannattasio became a coach, first in the youth sector, and then helping the best sprinters of his former club Fiamme Gialle, including the Olympians Alfonso Di Guida, Antonio Ullo, and Carlo Simionato. Giannattasio died suddenly a month after turning 61 due to cardiac arrest.

Personal Best: 100 – 10.26 (1967).