Sergiy Lebid in Campaccio (© Lorenzo Sampaolo for IAAF)
Europe beat Africa at the 47th edition of the Campaccio international cross country race on Monday 6 January, the traditional season-opener of the Italian winter athletics season. Sergiy Lebid and Helena Javornik, reigning European champions from the recent European Cross country championships in windy Medulin on the Croatian coast in December, won the honours over their competitive African rivals in a chilly afternoon in San Giorgio Su Legnano, a few kilometres from Milan.
The 12 km male race featured four world champions, Charles Kamathi, the man who broke Haile Gebrselasie’s win streak in the 10,000 metres at the World Championships in Edmonton, Richard Limo, winner of the 5000 metres title in Canada and the reigning World Half Marathon champion Paul Kosgei, Gebre Eghiabher Gebremariam, winner in the junior race at the World Championships in Dublin last March and 10,000 metres World Junior champion in Kingston and Abel Cheruiyot, runner-up in the junior race in Dublin, against Sergiy Lebid. The race soon developed into a tactical competition with seven men in the leading pack five seconds ahead of the 1998 European marathon champion Stefano Baldini.
After three laps Gebremariam, Cheruiyot and Lebid went to the lead in 18:57 with a second separating them from Pius Muli and Kamathi with Richard Limo lagging behind. Before completing the fourth lap Kamathi, Gebremariam and Lebid made a decisive breakaway attempt. The first four laps were run in 24:40. Kamathi and Gebremariam tried to leave Lebid behind but the Ukranian responded by closing the gap. At the bell Lebid went into the lead with a second over his African rivals. With 250 metres to go the European cross country champion produced the decisive sprint from Kamathi and Gebremariam and crossed the finish line hands down supported by his fans.
Sergiy is very popular in Italy as he spends most of the year in Feriolo di Baveno on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy and competes for the Cover Verbania club. “In Italy I feel really at home. I have a lot of friends here”, said Sergey after the race. “ Now I am planning three more races: at Belfast, at the European Club Championships at Jaen in Spain and at the Italian Club Championships in Modena on 9 February for the Cover Verbania before flying back to Kislovodsk, a mountain resort in the Caucasus where I traditionally prepare for the big events.”
Questioned about his chances against the Africans at the next IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne he said: “My goal is go for the podium in the long course race. After spending three weeks in my country I will return to compete at the Cinque Mulini, the traditional dress rehearsal for the World Champs. After Lausanne I will be getting married with the middle distance runner Helena Gorodnicheva, my long-time fianceè, at Dnepropetrovsk in the last week of April. Afterwards I will start focusing on the track season targeting a very fast 10,000 metres at Heusden, Belgium on the road to the IAAF World Championships in at the Stade de France in Paris St.Denis.”
Gebremariam overhauled Kamathi at the photo-finish for second place.” I am more than pleased with my second place. I will travel to Spain where I will be competing in two Spanish cross country races on 11 and 19 January before flying back to Ethiopia to compete at the National Trials for Lausanne”, said the Ethiopian. Gebremariam, still a junior athete in 2003, has a great potential also on the track where he ran the 10,000 metres in 27:25.61 last summer at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Brussels and in 13:12 on 6 September in Berlin and may follow in the footsteps of his countrymen Haile Gebrselasie, twice 10,000 metres Olympic champion and four times winner at the World Championships and the 2002 double World Cross Country champion Kenenisa Bekele.
The last edition of the Campaccio women’s race was won by the British star Paula Radcliffe who paved the way to her sensational 2002 year crowned with her 2:17:18 world best race at the Chicago Marathon, victories over 5000 metres at the Commonwealth Games and over 10,000 at the Europeans in Munich in a new continental record and the 3000 metres Commonwealth record at the Golden League in Monaco. This year the female race featured a clash between two different generations of athletes, the 36-year-old european champion Helena Javornik from Slovenia against the Kenyan Viola Kibiwott, World Junior champion at Dublin and in the 1500 metres at Kingston and Vivian Cheruiyot, third at Dublin in the junior race.
The 6 Km race turned into a challenge between the three athletes with the Slovenian, first this year at the Florence Marathon in 2:28 and Slovenian record holder over all distances between 1500 metres and marathon, leading after the first lap. The fight became very tough with Kibiwott and Javornik changing positions at the head of the race. At the bell Kibiwott, 17 years younger than her rival, went ahead but the Slovenian closed the gap and then launched her decisive attack and sprinted in the home stretch to the finish line with two seconds lead over the Kenyan.
Javornik who won the cross country race in Fuensalida on Sunday, was delighted with her win. “The race course was better than the one I found in Spain. It is a typical cross country course with ups and downs, softer than the one in Medulin. Now I am focusing on the long course race at the Worlds in Lausanne. Then I would like to prepare two marathons at Hamburg in the spring and New York next November. I have been already invited to compete there. I want to dedicate this win to my mother who passed away three years ago. She was the first person to support and encourage me.”
The short course race (4km) was won by the young Italian Lorenzo Perrone, tenth in the 1500 metres at the European Champs in Munich over Christian Obrist, seventh at Munich over the same distance and fifth in the Italian all-time list over 1500 with 3:35.74 set at the Golden League meeting in Zürich last August. Perrone and Obrist, both born in 1980, represent the future of the Italian middle distance running.
The organisers of the Campaccio race are bidding to host the 2005 European Cross Country Championships in San Giorgio Su Legnano.
Results:
Women’s race (6 Km):
1 Helena Javornik (SLO) 21:23.
2 Viola Kibiwott (KEN) 21:25.
3 Viola Cheruiyot (KEN) 21:44
4 Justina Bak (POL) 21:44
5 Gloria Marconi (ITA) 21:54
6 Patrizia Tisi (ITA) 21:55
7 Silvia Weissteiner (ITA) 22:01
8 Clarisse Cruz (POR) 22:10
9 Rosanna Martin (ITA) 22:13
Men’s race (12 Km):
1 Sergiy Lebid (UKR) 35:59
2 Gebremariam (ETH) 36:01
3 Charles Kamathi (KEN) 36:01
4 Pius Muli (KEN) 36:30
5 Abel Cheruiyot (KEN) 36:32
6 Paul Kosgei (KEN) 36:34
7 Richard Limo (KEN) 36:45
8 Stefano Baldini (ITA) 36:53
9 Luciano Di pardo (ITA) 37:01
Short Course Race (4 Km):
1 Lorenzo Perrone (ITA) 11:37
2 Christian Obrist (ITA) 11:38
3 Daniele Banchini (ITA) 11:39
4 Fabio Cesari (ITA) 11:41
5 Edward Lahner (ITA) 11:41
6 Stefano Scaini (ITA) 11:43
7 Angelo Iannelli (ITA) 11:46
8 Stefano Ciallella (ITA) 11:47
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
