Alberico di Cecco wins the 2005 Rome Marathon (© Michele D'annibale)
The 13th edition of the Rome Marathon on Sunday (18) opens a busy Marathon spring in Italy which will see the best Italian Marathon specialists battling for spots on the national team for this summer’s World Championships in Osaka.
The eternal city broke the barrier of 15,000 entries attracting a record figure of 15,187 runners from 73 nations which makes Rome the most popular Marathon event in Italy.
Di Cecco looking for repeat
Rome will feature a very interesting race with six sub-2:10 men and four sub-2:30 women expected to compete. Italian interest will be focused on top national runner Alberico Di Cecco who is looking to repeat the fantastic win of the 2005 edition when he ran a 2:08:02 PB which ranks him third on the Italian all-time list behind Olympic champion Stefano Baldini (2:07:22) and 1996 New York winner Giacomo Leone (2:07:52).
During his career Di Cecco, a 32-year-old experienced top runner from Guardiagrele (Chieti), finished ninth in the Olympic Marathon in Athens. He won the Turin Marathon in 2002 and ran twice in New York finishing fifth in 2005 and sixth in 2006.
Last autumn Di Cecco bounced back from a troubled 2006 season with a convincing second place in the Venice Marathon in 2:10:21, just three seconds behind Kenyan Jonathan Kosgei who will renew the challenge against the Italian in Rome on Sunday.
Di Cecco prepared for the Rome Marathon running a training test in Siracusa where he clocked 2:22:57 over a challenging course.
The Rome race, which also incorporates the Italian Marathon Championships, features other top Italians including Migidio Bourifa (PB 2:09:07) and Denis Curzi (PB 2:11:17) who will battle against Di Cecco for the national title.
Martinez leads non-Italian challenge
Over the fascinating course Italian top runners will square off against Spaniard Josè Manuel Martinez, the former European 10,000 metres champion from Munich 2002 and silver medallist from Gothenburg 2006. Martinez finished third in his debut over the Marathon in Rotterdam in 2002 and repeated this placing one year later when he ran his lifetime best of 2:08:09.
Martinez is not the only former track long distance runner from Europe competing in the Italian capital. France will be represented by Ismail Sghyr (PB 2:11:27 in Amsterdam 2003) who won the European 5000 metres silver medal in Munich 2002.
On the streets where legendary Abebe Bikila made history by winning the Olympic gold barefooted, Ethiopian runners may bring back glory to the African country thanks to 2000 Olympic bronze medallist Tesfaye Tola and Ashebir Demissie (PB 2:09:14), second in Singapore 2006 and fifth in Rotterdam 2005.
Kenya will be also represented by Frederick Cherono, winner in Rome 2003 in 2:08:47 and in Turin 2004 and Hillary Korir (PB 2:10:17).
Kimutai leads women’s field
The fastest woman in the field is Kenyan Hellen Kimutai who set her lifetime best (2:25:52) in Hamburg in 2003. This time is just six seconds slower than the course record set by Ukraine’s Tetyana Hladyr last year. Kimutai finished ninth in the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki 2005 and later in the same year she took the win at the Milan Marathon. Kimutai knows Rome’s course very well as she finished third in the Millennium Marathon on 1 January 2000.
The main challenger for Kimutai is expected to be experienced Slovenian Helena Javornik who improved her career best to 2:27:33 in 2004 when she won in Amsterdam.
Also lining up in the world-famous Fori Imperiali on Sunday morning will be Algeria’s Souad Ait Salem (PB 2:28:22 and recent winner of the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon in 70:29), Moroccan Asmae Leghzaoui (in her debut over the distance), last year’s Venice marathon winner Lenah Cheruiyot from Kenya (PB 2:33:04), Ethiopia’s Abidi Tigist (PB 2:33:01) and two very young Chinese runners, 20-year-old Yang Fengxia (PB 2:36:17) and Wang Xiaozhu (PB 2:36:06).
Another main European entry is Russia’s Natalia Volgina (PB 2:27:32), second in Paris in 2006.
Ivana Iozzia (PB 2:35:40) and Marcella Mancini (European Cup winner with the Italian team last summer in Gothenburg) will be the main contenders for the Italian title.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
