Fantastic feat by Davide Ghiotto who became world champion in the 10,000-meter speed ice skating event. This is a historic achievement for the Italian long blades because no Italian skater had managed to win a gold medal at the World Championships single distance.

Ghiotto, in recent days rainbow silver medalist in the 5,000 and last year in Beijing Olympic bronze medalist in the 10,000, this afternoon at the 'Thjalf Arena' in Heerenveen triumphed by stopping the stopwatches on 12.41.35, a new Italian record. Ghiotto accomplished the feat under the eyes of thousands of almost all Dutch fans in what is considered the 'mecca' of speed skating worldwide on par with Wimbledon for tennis.

In Heerenveen, a town in the north of the Netherlands that lives for skating and its 'Thjalf Arena,' Ghiotto took Italy to the top of the world stage for the first time at a World Single Distance Championships with a sublime performance in the technical-tactical aspect. Davide was as smooth as a pendulum in all 25 laps. His chrono times had a minimum spread between 29.8 (lap 22/o and 23/o) and 30.6 confirming his excellent condition.

Davide, 29, a Vicenza native of the Fiamme Gialle, a philosophy graduate with a passion for Schopenhauer and Nietzsche to the point of discussing the text at the University of Trento on 'Ethics and Suicide,' is dad to Filippo and is romantically linked with Susy Balzarin. Davide's dad, Federico, was a professional cyclist from 1986 to 1993.