Rosaria Console wins Vienna Marathon (© Vienna City Marathon / Action Photo)
24 March 2006Rome, ItalyThe 12th edition of the Rome Marathon, scheduled for Sunday (26), is an important selection race for some of the best Italian runners aiming to book a berth for next summer's European Championships in Gothenburg. Among them, the husband-wife team of Daniele Caimmi and Rosaria Console.
Caimmi leads the local charge
Caimmi, fourth at the 2002 European Championships in Munich and sixth at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, carries the major Italian hopes in Sunday's race following a good return to form this winter after two difficult seasons. Caimmi's progress has been hampered by a series of physical problems after his unlucky participation at the Olympic Games in Athens.
In the months that followed the Athens Games, the second part of Caimmi's career began in autumn 2004 when he married top Italian marathoner Rosaria Console, who will also be competing in Rome. After his win in the long course race in January at the Italian Cross Country Club Championships in Macerata, Caimmi headed to Namibia for a training sting with Olympic champion Stefano Baldini. In his final competitive test prior to Sunday’s race, he finished third on a windy day in the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon, clocking 63:15. More recently, he ran 31 kilometres at the Treviso Marathon as a final tune up. Caimmi, who finished fourth in Rome in 2002 and has a personal best of 2:08:59 from Milan that same year, is looking for strong outing to impress selectors for spot on the Gothenburg squad.
The task however will be far from easy for the experienced Italian. His main rival looks to be Kenyan Daniel Yego who returns hoping to improve on his third place finish last year (2:08:16). Yego proved that his Rome result was not a fluke when he finished runner-up in Amsterdam last fall in 2:08:58 behind the "Emperor" Haile Gebrselassie. Last year’s winner in Rome, Italian Alberico Di Cecco, set the current course record of 2:08:02, the fastest performance by an Italian marathoner last year. The average of the top three times in the men's race made Rome the fastest marathon race of 2005 in Italy, and the third in the world behind Chicago and London.
Also in the line-up on Sunday will be Kenyans Thomas Chemitei (PB 2:09:21 in Eindhoven 2005), Paul Lokira (who lowered his PB to 2:10:18 in Venice in 2005) and Samson Kosgei (winner in Florence in 2005 in 2:11.27), Ethiopia's Abebe Hailemariam (PB 2:09:34), Ukrainian record holder Alexandr Kuzin (PB 2:10:54 set last year in Venice) and former European junior 10,000 metres and cross country champion Vasyl Matvichuk, also from the Ukraine, who ran a marathon PB last autumn in Carpi with 2:12:34.
Console tops the women’s race
Caimmi's wife Console starts as the best Italian hope. Console has pleasant memories of her past Rome experience after a third place finish in 2004, behind her compatriots Ornella Ferrara and Bruna Genovese, thus earning a berth in the Italian Olympic team for Athens. In the Greek capital Console finished 16th. The tiny Italian runner will try to lower her lifetime best of 2:27:48 which she ran in the 2003 Paris Marathon where she finished runner-up.
Console will be challenged by one of the top US runners, Jen Rhines. The 31-year-old, a part of the American marathon squad at the Athens Olympics, has a career best of 2:29:57 from the 2004 Olympic Trials where she finished third. Rhines also won a team silver medal at the World Cross Country Championships in 2002.
China's Dan Yanyan (lifetime best 2:29:58 in Bejing 2004) is the first woman ever to represent her country in an Italian marathon race. The main east European challengers will be Russia's Larissa Zousko (PB 2:28:05) and Ukraine's Tatyana Hladyr (PB 2:29:34).
Rome has attracted 12,000 entries, a record for an Italian marathon. The race will be contested over a fascinating course that starts and ends in the world famous Viale dei Fori Imperiali.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
