Franco Giongo

Franco Giongo was born in Bologna and was the first Italian sprinter of international importance. He obtained the best results of his long career in the 100 and 220 yards in Wien (Vienna) in 1914, with 10.0 and 21¾. He ran 11.0 for 100 metres multiple times, a national record. He won the 200 metres three times at the Paris Prix Ravaut and, at the 1914 Italian Championships in Milano on 26 and 27 September, he won a historic hat trick in the 100, 200 and 400 metres. In the same season Giongo defeated the redoubtable Emilio Lunghi in a 400 m., as they both ran 51⅗. and Giongo later ran the same distance in Budapest in 50.5. He ended his career in 1923 in Bologna with an astonishing 10⅘ as a 32-year-old, after eight years away from competition. Giongo won 11 Italian individual titles: 5 at 100 m. (1910-12, 1914, 1923), 2 at 200 m. (1914 and 1923) and 4 at 400 m. (1910-12, 1914).

Personal Bests: 100 – 10.8 (1923); 200 – 21.7 (1914); 400 – 50.4 (1914).