Naples, Italy - Just three weeks after taking 4th place in the Flora London Marathon, double World Marathon bronze medallist Stefano Baldini took a very surprising Italian Half Marathon title today in 1:02:44.

Kenyan Rita Jeptoo won the women's race, but the national title went to the second placed, Patrizia Tisi.

Men's race -

Before the race Baldini was thinking about a 1:04-1:05 race. However, the first part the pace was not too fast (little under 3:00 for each km) and he was able to stay easily in the leading pack. They passed through 5km in 14:48 and in 29:41 through 10 km. At that point eight men were in the leading group.

After the 12 km, when Kenya's Ronald Munyao had finished his work as a rabbit, Giuliano Battocletti took the lead and the pack came down to four: Battocletti, Baldini, other Italian Francesco Bennici and Ukraine's Vasyl Matviychuk. At 17 km, after a very hard 500-metres long uphill, Baldini and Matviychuk were alone, with Battocletti some metres behind.

Baldini, the 1996 World Half Marathon champion launched his definitive attack in the last km and crossed the finish line with 1:02:44. Matvichuk was 9 seconds behind, while a little disappointed Battocletti was 3rd with 1:03:02. For the 4th place Kenyan Samuel Nganga overtook Bennici, who was the bronze medallist in the restricted Italian championships.

"After the London Marathon, I have trained seriously only once," said Baldini. "So I came here just to take some points for my team, Corradini Rubiera. During the race I felt well and so I tried to win and I was able to do so. Now I am going to train hard at home for three weeks, then I will have two one-month stage, the first one in June in Livigno, the second one in July in St. Moritz."

Women's race - Jeptoo produces solo run

Kenyan Rita Jeptoo pushed away alone at 3 km and her race was a solo one until the finish line, which she crossed with 1:12:47. Behind her, the Italians din't care about first place, but fought just for the national title. They went together until the 16 km, when Patrizia Tisi (who was 18th at the recent  World Cross Country Championships and set her 10,000 PB in the Maribor Eurochallenge with 32:34:04) increased the pace.

Just 24-years old Vincenza Sicari tried to follow Tisi, but after 2km she had to slow down as well. Tisi finished with 1:13:27, 15 seconds ahead of Sicari. Bruna Genovese, who could be in the Italian team for the Olympic Games after the 2nd place in Rome Marathon (2:29:02), was 4th ahead of the Italian marathon record holder Maura Viceconte.

Full Marathon

The full marathon and a 5 km race also  started from Naples' Piazza del Plebiscito. David Kipkorir pushed away with 10 km to go and won men's race in 2:15:53. Morocco's Hafida Izem, who lives in Italy and who in 2004 has already won Rome-Ostia Half Marathon (1:10:39) and Treviso Marathon, dropped Bahrain's (but Morocco-born) Nadia Ejjafini after the half marathon (1:18:20) distance and closed out the race with 2:36:02.

Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF

Men
1. Stefano Baldini  ITA  1:02:44
2. Vasyl Matviychuk  UKR  1:02:53
3. Giuliano Battocletti  ITA  1:03:02
4. Samuel Nganga  KEN  1:03:10
5. Francesco Bennici  ITA  1:03:14

Women
1. Rita Jeptoo  KEN  1:12:47
2. Patrizia Tisi  ITA  1:13:27
3. Vincenza Sicari  ITA  1:13:42
4. Bruna Genovese  ITA  1:14:02
5. Maura Viceconte  ITA  1:14:12

Napoli Marathon (42,195 KM)

Men
1. David Kipkorir  KEN  2:15:53
2. Luka Cherono  KEN  2:18:21
3. David Koech  KEN  2:19:45

Women
1. Hafida Izem  MAR  2:36:02
2. Nadia Ejjafini  BAR  2:39:26