Baldini finishes in Arezzo (© Alberto Zorzi)
Kenya's Robert Sigei Kipngetich and Italy's Deborah Toniolo were the winners of the men’s and women’s races at the 33rd Scalata al Castello 10km road race held yesterday night in Tuscany's city of Arezzo on a very hard course.
Every lap is 830m long and closes with a 250m uphill stretch. The men ran 12 laps, while the women 6 laps. Olympic Marathon champion Stefano Baldini was not able to defend the title he got last year, closing in 6th place.
MEN 10km - Kipngetich out-sprinted a group of five
Kipngetich, who recently ran a lone 5000m in a time of 13:25.05, broke the leading pack during the 4th lap and just five athletes were able to follow him. Then for some laps nobody upped the pace and the six ran together until the last lap, with just the other Italian Giuliano Battocletti trying to take the initiative in a couple of times.
During the last lap Kipngetich, who is 23 and lives and often races in Italy, made a strong move and in the final climb resisted the attack of Eritrea's Abdallah Afringi, though they were both given the same finishing time of 29:16.
Battocletti, who last week won the 10,000m Italian Championships, was a good 3rd three seconds later. Baldini closed the race almost walking (29:27 his time), but the spectators would not stop cheering him.
Baldini - "I'm healthy, I have to get into the best shape"
For Baldini last year's Scalata al Castello had been the second leg of five wins in a row, the last one in the Olympic Marathon in Athens. "I was already in great shape at this time, now I'm at least 2 weeks behind the schedule," he said after the race. "After the London Marathon I was a little worried about the injury I suffered in my right foot. It had changed my way of running and in London I started fatiguing too early." He finished 5th with 2:09:25.
"Now I feel completely healthy and I am sure I have the time in which to get the best shape. I have ten weeks until the World Championships and on Tuesday I will start to train hard. Of course I want to honour my Olympic gold, the championships are my races."
Today "I was able to stay with the first pack, but in the last lap they closed too fast for me," he added about the race. "I did not remember that the course is so hard, but when you are in good shape as I was last year, you don't feel it."
WOMEN 5km - Toniolo-Console duel
28-year-old Deborah Toniolo has been improving her fitness day-by-day. Two weeks ago she set her PB in the 5000m (16:26:88), seven days later she did the same at the 10,000m, finishing fourth in the Italian Championships with 33:46:51. Today she outsprinted the favourite Rosalba Console, after making the decisive move during the 2nd of the 6 laps.
"It was a good test," told Console, who probably will be the only Italian woman in the World Championship Marathon, after Bruna Genovese confirmed her withdrawal. "Next week I will go to Livigno and I have scheduled just one race before the Helsinki Marathon, the half marathon at the Mediterranean Games."
Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF
Results
Men's race (10km)
1. Robert Sigei Kipngetich KEN 29:16
2. Abdallah Afringi ERI 29:16
3. Giuliano Battocletti ITA 29:19
4. David Kepkony KEN 29:20
5. Aziz Driouche MAR 29:20
6. Stefano Baldini ITA 29:27
...
10. Danilo Goffi ITA 29:55
Women's race (5km)
1. Deborah Toniolo ITA 16:49
2. Rosalba Console ITA 16:55
3. Zaituni Nkoki TAN 17:10
