Rieti, Italy - Just 9 days after a disappointing elimination in the 5000m heat at IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, five-time cross country European champion Sergiy Lebid won yesterday (20 Aug) for the first time the Amatrice-Configno, 8.5km road race in the town 160 km far from Rome.

The race is known to be one of the hardest, as after three downhill kilometres the course starts climbing towards Configno, a very tiny village one hundred metres on the sea level higher than Amatrice. Last year the race became famous as would-be Olympic marathon champion Stefano Baldini did his last test here, like Gelindo Bordin when winning in 1988, some weeks before the gold medal in Seoul.

The Ukrainian out-sprinted 2002 Boston and New York marathon winner, Kenya's Rodgers Rop, who was not able to add his name to the list of Kenyan former winners of the race like Paul Kipkoech, Moses Tanui, Paul Tergat, Andrew Masai, Elijah Lagat, Benson Barus.

The first pack ran until 3km at a very fast pace (7:58) but immediately when the climbing starts it was clear who would be the favourites. Rop took the lead, ahead of Lebid and the other Kenyan Solomon Bushendich, while everybody else was dropped. Rop tried in every way to drop Lebid, whose last sprint was almost unbeatable for a "pure" marathon runner as he is.

With 2km to go, Bushendich, who for most of the time had remained ten metres behind the two, tried to push the pace as well. But when the three entered the last kilometre, Lebid launched a strong attack and they both had nothing to do. Lebid's time was the fourth fastest ever on this course (the best time was set in 2002 by Enock Mitei with 23:30).

Illness in Helsinki, but good shape for Lebid

"I ran in Helsinki in order to train for Amatrice," Lebid joked on the podium after the race. Then, becoming more serious he analyzes his bad performance at the World Championships. "It's the third year in a row that I feel very good a couple of weeks before the main championships, but then get ill," he explains. "Probably I suffered from the air conditioned or something like this, because today I showed that I am in good shape."

The next race for the 30-year-old will be the Tilburg Ten Miles (Netherlands) on September 4, where he will face "the Emperor" Haile Gebrselassie. "Then I will focus on the cross country European Championships, I want the sixth title. And in 2006 I will try to double 5000m and 10,000m at the Europeans on the track."

"I knew that Lebid would be the favourite in a sprint," said Rop, who crossed the finish line 10 seconds behind, "I also found the course very hard. I'm working in order to come back to my 2002 shape and I'm sure that I can do it." His next outing will be the Seoul Marathon, which will be held on the same day as the New York Marathon (6 Nov).

The “other” Jepchumba wins women’s race

Among the women, the pre-race favourite was Salomé Jepchumba, who closed in 5th at the World Championships at 3000m Steeplechase. However, the young Kenyan suffered very much the course and closed in 3rd very far from the winner, another Jepchumba, Rose. She is very young as well (20 years old) and she was discovered by Gabriele Rosa. "I am very happy," she said, "I was always ahead to push the pace and did not find the course so tiring."

Italy's Rosalba Console took a stunning 2nd place, out-sprinted just in the final stages. Just 6 days before she had run the marathon at the World Championships, where she closed in 19th with a time of 2:32:47.

Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF

Selected results (8.5km)
Men's race
1. Sergiy Lebid  UKR  23:43
2. Rodgers Rop  KEN  23:53
3. Solomon Bushendich  KEN  23:58
4. Elias Chelimo  KEN  24:08
5. Mathew Cheboi  KEN  24:09

Women's race
1. Rose Jepchumba  KEN  27:59
2. Rosalba Console  ITA  28:05
3. Salomè Jepchumba  KEN  29:18