Alberico Di Cecco at the 2003 Vigevano Golden Shoe. (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
The main focus at this Sunday’s Turin Marathon (18 April) will be the battle between Alberico Di Cecco, Danilo Goffi, Migidio Bourifa, Fabio Rinaldi and Sergio Chiesa for the final spot on the Italian Olympic Marathon team.
However, the Italians will face strong Kenyan opposition led by the 2003 Rome Marathon winner Frederick Cherono.
Stefano Baldini and Daniele Caimmi, who will run respectively in London and Boston this weekend, have already been pre-selected for Athens.
Ruggero Pertile is in the Italian Olympic selection battle too after becoming a serious candidate for the team after his astonishing victory in Rome in 2:10:13 on 28 March. He must wait in suspense for this weekend’s results in Turin to see if he will make the trip to Athens.
Turin’s Italian challengers
This year Alberico Di Cecco returns to Turin where he won his first big marathon in 2002 (2:10:27), a result which earned him a berth for the European Championships in Munich. Di Cecco enjoyed a successful 2003 season highlighted by his third place in Rome in 2:08:54 (PB) and after running at the World Championships in Paris he prepared for the New York Marathon. In the Big Apple he finished fifth and was the first non-Kenyan home. This spring Di Cecco has prepared specifically for Turin and after a test in the Treviso Marathon, where he ran in a “relaxed” 2:14:26, is in very good form.
Danilo Goffi, a European silver medallist in Budapest 1998 and a 2:08:33 runner (Rotterdam 1998), is bouncing back after some troubled years blighted by some physical problems. This year Turin may feature a repetition of what happened in 2002 when Goffi finished second in the northern italian city behind Di Cecco.
Sergio Chiesa (PB 2.10:30), third in Turin in 2002 and second in Venice 2003, Migidio Bourifa, who runs his second marathon in just three weeks after his second place in Rome behind Pertile in the attempt to keep his Olympic hopes alive, and Fabio Rinaldi (first in the Treviso marathon in 2:11:46) are not to be written off.
The Italian selectors will take a final decision at the end of April probably after the Padua Marathon on 25 April where the 1996 New York Marathon winner Giacomo Leone is entered.
Kenya’s bid
Frederick Cherono from Kenya, who won the 2003 Rome marathon in 2:08:47, leads the Kenyan challenge in Turin, while Michael Kapkiai will try to find the inspiration which enabled him to take a surprising victory in this city in 1994 in what remains his personal best of 2:10:07. After sustaining so many injuries Kapkiai produced a succesful comeback in Florence in 2002 where he won in 2:11:15. The 21-year-old kenyan Solomon Rotich, who trains in Kapsabet with the two-time New York winner Rodgers Rop, ran in 2:14:04 but may produce a surprise on Sunday.
Javornik leads the women’s challenge
The 38-year-old Helena Javornik from Slovenia, 2002 European Cross Country champion is the favourite for the women’s race. The most significant results of her marathon career include two wins in Florence 2002 in 2:28:13 (her PB) and Hamburg 2003. More recently she finished fourth in the European 10000 metres Challenge in Maribor in 32:31.4 in her last test before Turin.
Jennifer Chesinon from Kenya revealed her potential last Autumn when she finished first in Carpi where she ran in 2:31:38 and smashed her previous personal best by 14 minutes.
Jane Ekimat, third at this year’s Half marathon in Prague in 1:11:26 (one minute slower than personal best of 1:10:17), will run the first marathon of her career.
Fastest Italian course
The Turin Marathon boasts the fastest Italian course. The Italian men's all-comers record was set in 2001 when the Ethiopian Simeretu Alemayehu beat Stefano Baldini in 2:07:45.
This year the race will be contested over a fascinating new course which starts and finishes in the Parco del Valentino in the heart of Turin and crosses the neighbouring towns.
