Francesco Panetta

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Francesco Panetta (born January 10, 1963) is a former Italian long-distance runner, who won several medals at international championships in the 1980s. His greatest achievement was the victory at the World Championships' final over 3000m steeplechase in Rome 1987. The previous year he had won a silver medal at the European Championships in Stuttgart only narrowly losing to the East German runner Hagen Melzer. In the 1988 Olympic Final Panetta came ninth. In 1990 he won a European Championship gold medal in Split.

Panetta set several Italian records throughout his career (including 3000m and 10000m). In 1987 he ran the 3000m steeplechase in 8:08.57 min.