Baldini
is back
Marco
Sicari for the IAAF
7 August 2001
- Edmonton - Stefano . The 1998 European Champion is born, at the
age of thirty, to a new athletics life, after two seasons full only of injuries
and sadness. The bronze medal he got last Friday in Edmonton’s marathon, is the
key to re-start a career that seemed almost ended.
“I’m a different athlete, now,” says Stefano smiling and caressing his bronze. “Everything started in 1999, when I missed the Seville World Championships (he had planned to run the 10,000m) because of a sacral stress-fracture. After this, I spent almost two years before finding my form again.”
Stefano tried to come back for the first time at the end of 1999, at the European cross country championships, where he achieved the 10th place, but nothing had really changed. A new stop, caused by the same sacral stress, makes him lose the whole winter season.
In the spring, with just a few weeks of hard training, he runs the London Marathon in 2:09:45, finishing 6th. It’s a good performance (though far from his PB of 2:07:57), and together with his coach Luciano Gigliotti, Baldini decides it’s enough to step on the plane to Sydney.
But the summer before the Games brings new injuries, and several stops to the hard Olympic training schedule.
Sydney’s race is a nightmare. Stefano runs only 10 kilometers, far behind the leaders, before choosing to stop.
“Sydney was really rock bottom. After that, I decided that something had to change, if I wanted to try again. Together with Luciano, we studied a new training plan: less kilometers to run, but higher quality of pace. The target: trying to stress my back as little as possible.”
Winter passes without major problems, and in the Spring (! April, 2001) Stefano runs his first marathon, after almost a year’s break: in Turin he comes second with a good 2:08:50, just beaten by Ethiopia’s Simeretu.
At the end of May, Stefano also becomes Italian champion at 10,000m, running in a comfortable 28:21.20.
Edmonton is the final target, the door to open.
In June, Baldini’s wife Virna De Angeli (Italy’s 400m national record holder with 51.37), gives him their first daughter, Alessia. Then come the World Championships.
“My goal, during the race, was to follow the group until the 36th km, and then, if nothing happened before, to try to make the break. As the kilometres passed by, I was convinced more and more of my chances. I wanted a medal. When Abera and the Biwott started the final kick, I didn’t find the strength to react in the right way, but I never thought I could miss bronze.”
Edmonton, Commonwealth Stadium.
Stefano takes the bronze medal and the Italian team also take the third place on the podium, together with Giacomo Leone (11th) and Alberico Di Cecco (17th). In Rubiera, where Stefano lives, the party starts for his big family (mother Maria and father Tonino brought up eleven children!). Baldini is back!
