Edwin Soi takes the win in Bolzano (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
The 51st edition of the Campaccio EAA Cross Country race in the small town of San Giorgio su Legnano near Milan will officially open the Italian 2008 athletics season.
On the famous course which played host to a memorable edition of the European Cross Country Championships in December 2006 which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Campaccio, some Kenyan stars led by Edwin Soi and Moses Mosop will challenge seven-time European Cross Country champion Sergiy Lebid from the Ukraine who is a local favourite in San Giorgio, which is just a few kilometres away from his Italian training base of Feriolo di Baveno on the Lake Maggiore.
Soi, Mosop start as favourites – men’s race
Soi starts as favourite in the Campaccio just five days after claiming a remarkable win in the end-of-year Boclassic road race in Bolzano on 31 December. The win in Bolzano capped a great 2007 season for the 21-year-old Soi who scored an impressive double win in the 3000 and 5000m at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart last September.
In the Campaccio Soi will face his compatriot Mosop, World Cross Country silver medallist in hot and humid Mombasa last March. During the 2007 track season Mosop ran a solid 26:49.55 in a high-quality 10,000m race in Hengelo last May but his progress was hampered since by injury problems.
A strong Ethiopian challenge will be led by Abreham Cherkos Feleke, World junior silver medallist in the 5000m in Bejing 2006 and World youth record holder in the 3000m (7:32.37) and in the 5000m (12:54.19) and Abebe Dinkesa, who ran the 10,000m in 26:30.74 in 2005.
The Campaccio, which has always revealed new distance running stars, could be a springboard race for Abebe Sihine, younger brother of 10,000m World and Olympic silver medallist Sileshi Sihine. For the young Sihine the Italian race will be his first ever race in Europe.
Lebid returns to course where continental streak was interrupted
Sergiy Lebid, who claimed the seventh European Cross Country title of his career in Toro in December, will be looking to bounce back from last year’s disappointment at the European Cross Country Championships in San Giorgio where he finished a distant 12th, his only major setback in his long and honoured career in the continental Cross Country championships. After his seventh triumph Lebid won a Spanish Cross Country race in Yecla, finished second at the Brussels IAAF Cross Country Permit meeting and in the Corrida of Houilles, before a fourth place in the Boclassic on New Year’s Eve.
Cosimo Caliandro, who took a surprising European indoor title in the 3000m in Birmingham, is gradually returning to his best form after injury problems during the summer as shown by his encouraging eighth place in the Boclassic 10 km. In the Campaccio Caliandro will be the best Italian runner in the field.
Kalovics vs. Holovchenko, but momentum with Reed ? – women’s race
The women’s race will feature a good-quality European battle between last year’s European Cross Country champion Tatyana Holovchenko from the Ukraine, former European Cross Country bronze medallist Aniko Kalovics from Hungary and Great Britain’s Kate Reed, sixth in Toro and runner-up in the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid on 31 December.
Both Holovchenko and Kalovics have a very good memory of their past appearances in San Giorgio su Legnano. Holovchenko took the honours at last year’s European Championships, while Kalovics claimed victory in 2004 after an impressive gun-to-tape race.
The only major Kenyan name is Fridah Domongole, a former World youth bronze medallist in the 3000m in 2001.
Silvia Weissteiner, the surprising 3000m European indoor bronze medallist, will carry the major Italian hopes but she is not in good form after a bout of flu forced her to miss the European Championships in Toro.
Both men and women races will incorporate a Under-23 team race between six European national squads: Italy, Spain, Hungary, France, Portugal and Hungary.
The Italian Under 23 team will feature Andrea Lalli, who won the European junior Cross Country gold medal a year ago helping the “azzurri team” to an impressive European junior team title. This year Lalli made a good progress finishing fourth in his first year in the under 23 age group.
An interesting name in the men’s junior race will be Mario Scapini, European junior champion in the 1500m in Hengelo last summer. Scapini, who is considered the major 800 and 1500m hope for the future, is coached by Italian distance and Cross Country racing “guru” Giorgio Rondelli who previously guided Alberto Cova and Francesco Panetta (five-time winner of Campaccio) to Olympic, World and European titles in the 1980s.
Italian fans hope that the Campaccio race which pave the way to a successful season for Italian athletics in 2007, and will continue to inspire new generations of young runners to glory in the 2008 New Year.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
