Edoardo Severgnini

As an amateur, Edoardo Severgnini won the 1927 and 1928 Italian sprint title and in 1928, was also fourth at the World Championships but at the Amsterdam Olympics, he was eliminated in the heats. Severgnini turned professional in 1929 and won the bronze medal at the Italian Professional Sprint Championship. After a brief spell racing in the United States, where he won the Six-Days of Philadelphia with the American cyclist Willie Grimm.

After returning to Italy, Severgnini started motor-paced racing, and in 1934 won the Italian title and also the bronze medal at the World Championships, in a race won by the German Erich Metze. Severgnini went on to win the Italian title again three years in succession, 1936-38 and collected another bronze medal at the 1938 World Championships, when Metze was again champion. Having won the Italian title for the fourth consecutive year in 1939, he qualified for the final of the World Championships at Milano, but the race was never run because the event was cancelled due to the imminent threat of War in Europe.