Overview
- Atletica San Biagio confirmed his late entry among 35 athletes for Alessandria on Sunday, with the start scheduled for 12:45.
- He said he is racing as a tribute to his best friend, Hubert Rabensteier, who died suddenly at 56 a week earlier.
- He set a European masters 10,000 m racewalk record of 38:34.07 in September 2025 after retiring from a July 2024 comeback event.
- The championships introduce a half-marathon racewalk as the discipline tests standard 21.097 km road formats.
- His case includes positives in 2012 and 2016 that led to an eight-year ban; the Bolzano court archived the criminal case in 2021, a CAS appeal was rejected, and the ECHR has opened a proceeding against Switzerland over the TAS decision.