Dominating victory and big PB for Pamela Chepchumba in Milan (© organisers)
The Samsung Milano City Marathon will celebrate its ninth edition on Sunday 23 November.
About 6000 runners are expected to run the Milan Marathon which will start and finish at the Piazza Castello in the heart of the second biggest italian city. Milan, the italian financial and fashion capital, is making the headlines these days thanks to the great results of the two famous football teams Inter and Milan who are on the top of the Serie A football league but this weekend Milan will be in the spotlight for its road-running event which is emerging as the fastest race in Italy.
“Our goal is to break the Italian all-comers record in the men’s race currently held by Semretu Alemayehu who ran 2:07:45 in Turin in 2001,” said Milano Marathon’s Elite Athletes Coordinator Federico Rosa. The very fast and flat Milan course has undergone some slight changes to make it even faster than last year.
The course record was set by Benson Cherono who ran 2:07:58 in 2006 on a different course and in a different period of the year, as that race was held on 7 October on a sunny and warm day. Organizers hope that the present unseasonably warm but favourable November weather in Milan will continue until next weekend.
MEN
The top candidates in the men’s race are Kenyans Duncan Kibet and Elias Kemboi Chelimo, Christopher Isegwe from Tanzania and Helder Ornelas from Portugal who took a surprising win in the 2005 Milano Marathon on a very cold day.
Kibet emerged internationally last spring when he finished second in 2:08:33 in the Vienna Marathon. Kibet, who has a half-marathon PB of 60:22, has the potential to run the marathon under the 2:08 barrier.
Chelimo won the Maratona Città di Roma in 2:09:36 and confirmed this good result with a second place in 2:09:50 in Xiamen last January, while Christopher Isegwe, World silver medallist in Helsinki in his PB of 2:10:21, will run his first a marathon after a long period of absence due to recurrent injury problems. In 2006, Isegwe did not finish his two marathons in Melbourne and London and did not compete at all in 2007. Milan can be his come-back race.
For Ornelas this Sunday’s race will mark a return to the city where the former cross-country specialist in December 2005 clocked 2:09:59 beating Kenyan Paul Kirui in his debut over the distance in a race which will be remembered for the very cold temperatures after a heavy snowfall.
Another top European name is Olexandr Kuzin from the Ukraine who ran a very surprising 2:07:33 in 2007.
The other top names include Leonard Mucheru from Bahrain, who ran 12:59.79 on the track for 5000m in 2005, Norman Dlomo, third in the Milan Marathon last year in 2:10:39, and Benjamin Kiprotich, winner in the Maratona di Sant’Antonio in Padua in his PB of 2:10:44 in 2004.
Italian hopes will be represented by 35-year-old Danilo Goffi, a European silver medallist in Budapest in 1998. Goffi set his 2:08:33 PB in Rotterdam in 1998.
WOMEN
Last year’s Milan Marathon winner Pamela Chepchumba returns to defends her title. In the last two years Chepchumba has won the World Half Marathon bronze medal. Last year’s run in Udine was a precursor to her Milan victory in her PB of 2:25:36 clocking the second fastest race ever run in Milan behind Margaret Okayo’s 2:24:59 set in 2002.
Chepchumba, who came second in Hamburg this April with 2:28:36, will face Olivera Jevtic from Serbia, who won the European Championships silver medal in Gothenburg in 2006. Jevtic won the 2003 Rotterdam Marathon in her current PB of 2:25:23.
Anna Incerti is the best Italian. The 28-year-old runner from Palermo, was the best Italian marathon runner finishing 14th at the Olympic Games in Beijing setting a new PB of 2:30:55 and could break the 2:30 barrier for the first time in her career on Sunday.
The programme of this year’s Milano City Marathon also features a McDonald’s Family Walking event of 4219 metres for families and children.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
