Elvan Abeylegesse en route to her 30:21.67 victory in Antalya (© Hasse Sjogren)
The Italian town of Ferrara is set to play host the European Cup 10,000m on Saturday (7). It’s the second time that Italy hosts the event which was introduced in 1997 as European 10,000m Challenge, before being renamed in 2005. The first time Italy staged this event was in 2002 when Camaiore in Tuscany featured the win of the Italian men’s team, which has remained the only triumph for the “Azzurri” in the history of this event.
Ferrara will be an important test for some of the best 10,000 metres specialists in Europe who are looking to get the qualifying standard for this summer’s World Championships in Osaka. As there are few opportunities during the season to get the standard in this discipline - 27:49.00 'A'/28:06.00 'B' for men, 31:40.00 'A'/32:00.00 'B' for women - Ferrara will be a crucial test for those runners who are aiming to book their berths for Japan.
Defending champion Abeylegesse leads solid women’s field
The women’s race promises to be of the highest quality with some of the best European specialists in the field.
Last year’s winner Elvan Abeylegesse from Turkey will defend the title she won last year in abysmal rainy conditions on home soil in Antalya where she ran an impressive 30:21.67, which ranks her fourth all-time among Europeans, a list led by British star Paula Radcliffe (30:01.09).
The Ethiopian-born Abeylegesse held the 5000m World Record with 14:24.68, a time run at the Bislett Games in Bergen in 2004 which resisted all assaults until June of last year when Ethiopian Meseret Defar broke the tape in 14:24.53 in New York.
Abeylegesse has not reproduced her scintillating 2004 performance over the shorter distance. Last summer she took the bronze in the 5000 in Gothenburg but did not finish the 10,000m final.
Great Britain will send a traditionally strong women’s team which features Jo Pavey and Hayley Yelling. Pavey began her 2007 season with an impressive 8:31.50 Commonwealth indoor record in the 3000m at Sparkassen Cup Indoor meeting in Stuttgart on 3 February, but not fully recovered from a bout of flu before last month’s European Indoor Championships in Birmingham, she finished sixth over the distance. For Pavey, who ran a 5000m career best of 14:39.96 in Brussels last summer, it’s the first serious attempt over the longer distance.
Among past winners of the continental Cup title who will start in Ferrara there will be Sabrina Mockenhaupt from Germany who won in Barakaldo (Spain) in 2005 with her career best of 31:21.28. The popular German distance runner comes to Ferrara after a fourth place finish in the European indoor 3000 where she ran a lifetime best of 8:45.77.
Other strong contenders will be 2006 European cross country champion Tetyana Holovchenko from the Ukraine and Belgium’s Nathalie De Vos (PB 31:45.94).
Caliandro leading the hosts’ charge
Italian hopes in the men’s race are set on the recently-minted 3000m European indoor champion Cosimo Caliandro, who has become the second Italian to win the event, 15 years after Gennaro Di Napoli’s victory in Genova in 1992. The 25-year-old Caliandro, who is a former 1500m European junior champion, ran an impressive race in Birmingham covering the last 1000m in 2:27 and the final 200 metres in 26 seconds. For Caliandro it will the first serious attempt over the 10,000m distance.
Another name to watch on the Italian squad will be Daniele Meucci, who won the European Under-23 cross country bronze medal on home soil in San Giorgio su Legnano in December.
The strong men’s Spanish long distance “Armada” will pose a fierce challenge to the host nation. The Spanish team, which has lifted five European Cup trophies, features solid specialists such as 33-year-old José Rios, who the European Cup race in 2001. Rios has a 27:22.70 PB over the distance. He won two Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan in 2004 and 2006 and ran a 2:07:42 lifetime best over the 42.2 km distance. The Spanish hopes to notch up the sixth team title are raised by another solid specialist, Carles Castillejo, who finished runner-up twice in this event, in 2004 and 2005.
Also in the men’s line-up will be Austrian Günther Weidlinger, who is better known as a solid 3000m Steeplechase specialist (PB 8:10.83) and Ukraine’s Vasyl Matvichuk, a former European junior 10,000m and cross country champion.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
