Italy's Denis Curzi set a PB and a course record, taking yesterday (6 Mar) his first win ever on the 42,195km distance at 2nd Treviso Marathon. Curzi clocked 2:11:37, 51 seconds off his previous best time he had set in Rome in 2002 and 11 seconds off the time clocked by winner Fabio Rinaldi last year.
MEN - The lead pack which crossed halfway in 1:05:27 and 25km in 1:17:41 by 29km was down just to three runners, Denis Curzi, Ethiopia's Abebe Halefom and Kenya's Henry Kapkyai.
At 35km the pace of Curzi dropped Kapkyai and then at 38km he made his move and was able to drop also Halefom. He run last 4,195km with a time of 13:03 (3:07/km), very good considering that the last part of the race was slow, because rich of bends and in the center of the little city of Treviso.
"I felt like a little Baldini!" Curzi said after the race, referring to the Olympic marathon champion's wonderful final in Athens. "I never was able to run that fast in the final before, so I thank my coach Romano Tordelli very much, because he has always had faith in me.
WOMEN - After major withdrawals by last year champion Morocco's Hafida Izem and Italy's Silvia Sommaggio, women's race was a low-profile one. Ethiopia's Zinash Alemu out sprinted countrymate Hirut Areba, as in last Athens Classic Marathon.
Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF
RESULTS
Men's race
1. Denis Curzi ITA 2:11:37
2. Abebe Tsegaye Halefom ETH 2:12:52
3. Olexandr Kuzin UKR 2:13:39
4. Henry Kapkyai KEN 2:14:20
5. Rachid Kisri MAR 2:14:26
Women's race
1. Zinash Alemu, ETH 2:40:53
2. Abera Hirut, ETH, 2:40:59
3. Rosanna Munerotto, ITA, 2:44:30
