Eliud Kipchoge leading the men's race at the Kenyan trials in Nairobi (© Ricky Simms)
Reigning World Cross Country champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea and former 5000m World champion Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya will be the headliners of the 76th edition of the Cinque Mulini IAAF Cross Country Permit race in San Vittore Olona on Sunday 3 February 2008.
San Vittore Olona will feature the second clash of 2008 between Tadese and Kipchoge who finished respectively second and third closely beaten by Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele at the Holyrood Park in Edinburgh on 12 January in the same venue which will play host to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on 30 March.
Tadese, the first athlete from Eritrea to win an Olympic medal when he finished third in Athens in the 10,000 metres, celebrated a fantastic 2007 season when he won two World titles in the cross country in Mombasa and in the half marathon over a superfast course in Udine.
In Mombasa Tadese put an end to the winning streak of Kenenisa Bekele who was pursuing an historic sixth title but had to surrender to physical ailments in the very hot weather conditions.
Tadese won his second world road running title clocking an impressive 58:59 in Udine to the delight of his Eritrean fans who travelled from the Eritrean community based in Rome to the Northern Italian town to support their hero.
The 26-year-old Madrid-based Eritrean will try to bounce back from his two narrow defeats in the Edinburgh and Seville IAAF cross country races where he was held off in very close competitions respectively by Kenenisa Bekele and Uganda’s rising star Moses Kipsiro.
For Tadese it’s the second appearance in the legendary Italian race. In 2003 a very young Tadese went to the podium finishing third behind Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop and Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid.
Eliud Kipchoge, a former World junior cross country champion in 2003, showed his good form in Edinburgh where he finished third sharing the same time as Tadese losing to Bekele by just one second over the 9.3 km race (27:42 to 27:43).
The Kenyan team also features last year’s World junior cross country bronze medallist Mathew Kipkoech Kisorio and Mark Kigen.
The European challenge is led by 3000m steeplechase specialist Günther Weidlinger from Austria, silver medallist in the European 10,000 metres Challenge in Ferrara and a solid 8:10.83 national record holder in his favourite track discipline.
Italian runners will fight to score valuable points for the FIDAL Grand Prix ranking. The best Italian hope in Sunday’s race will be Stefano La Rosa, who finished fifth in the under 23 race at the European Championships in Toro on 9 December.
Women's race
Kenyan Pauline Korikwiang, World junior cross country champion in Fukuoka 2006, starts as favourite in the women’s race. The young Kenyan will face a solid European challenge led by Hayley Yelling from Great Britain, former European cross country champion in Heringsdorf in 2004 and recently winner of the snowy Belfast IAAF cross country race on 5 January, and Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton, European under 23 cross country silver medallist in the neighbouring town of San Giorgio su Legnano in 2006.
Elena Romagnolo, national 3000m steeplechase record holder (9:41.11 set in 2007), will carry the major Italian hopes following her good third place in the Campaccio race on 5 January. The domestic field is completed by Vallagarina’s third placer Federica Dal Ri, 3000m steeplechase specialist Agnes Tschutschenthaler, Valentina Belotti, Renate Rungger and 2000m steeplechase Italian youth record holder Valeria Roffino.
Mario Scapini, reigning European junior champion in the 1500 metres in Hengelo in 2007, will highlight the junior race. Scapini, who is not a cross country specialist, will use the Cinque Mulini race to test his form ahead of his big goal of the summer which is represented by the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz next July. Interestingly Scapini is coached by famous Italian cross country coach Giorgio Rondelli, who guided Alberto Cova to Olympic, World and European titles in the 10,000 metres in the eighties and to the last Italian win in San Vittore Olona in 1986.
This year the Cinque Mulini will be a three-day event which will start on Friday 1 February with the Regional finals of the Sport Student Games and continue with a series of school competitions on Saturday 2 February which will act as a “warm-up” for Sunday’s international races.
During its long history the Cinque Mulini twenty-six Olympic champions made their trip to San Vittore Olona to compete in the Cinque Mulini. This weekend’s Cinque Mulini will certainly add a new chapter to the legend of what the great distance runner Grete Waitz from Norway (six-time winner in San Vittore) called the “most beautiful cross country race in the world”.
Diego Sampaolo from the IAAF
