Stefano Baldini heads the field in the 2001 World championships Marathon (bronze medallist) (© Getty Images)
Paul Tergat and Stefano Baldini were the stars of Saturday night's 9th Running Tour in the City of Arco (16 Aug) with the Kenyan winning the race with 29:07, and Baldini finshing a good 3rd. But few minutes before the race started in the centre of the city near Garda Lake, a strong wind was joined by driving rain which made the course very difficult and slippery.
The start of the race was slow because of the weather conditions. Until 6th laps, Kenyan Joshua Chelanga led the pack as an unofficial "rabbit", but almost fifteen men were still in with a chance.
Only two laps later the first big move arrived, when Baldini and the 21 years old Ukrainan Vasyl Matviychuk made the first serious attack and smashed the leading group, which was formed by Chelanga, Baldini, Tergat, Matviychuk, the young Italian Mattia Maccagnan, the Kenyan Philip Korir, the Tanzanian Naftal Dakho, the Tunisian Rashid Amor and the Spaniard Javier Caballero.
The only one able to keep with the Baldini-Matvichuk break was obviously Tergat, while Korir and the rst drifted behind. After another lap - it was the 9th - and Tergat made "his" attack and immediately dropped the other two leaders, and went on towards the victory.
In the last lap, Tergat merely kept control, crossing the finish line in good shape with a time of 29:07. The 27:49 race record set by Moses Tanui in 1997 was far away but the rain was an important factor.
For second, Matviychuk outsprinted Baldini by 0:02. The Italian immediately hugged his wife Virna De Angeli (who also will be in Paris in the Italian 4x400 relay) and his 2 years old daughter Alessia, who were just after the finish line.
"I was very satisfied with my race", Baldini said, "I was always ahead in the pack and tried to move away twice, but when Tergat attacked it was too fast for me, given my last training works for Paris marathon".
Korir crossed the line 0:04 later, followed by Chelanga, Caballero, Dakho and Amor. The Tunisian was almost caught by Ottavio Andriani, who had a very good second part of race and was the second Italian home. Andriani will not run World Championships marathon, but has trained with the others of Italian marathon team for his two fall goals: half marathon World Championships in Vilamoura (Portugal) on 5 october and New York City Marathon four weeks later.
Last year Baldini had dominated the race with a time of 28:10, but there was no rain and he had come straight to the event after having run the European 10,000m Championships, so he was on top form.
This year, the Italian used the race to check his shape for the World Championships Marathon in Paris which he will run exactly in two weeks time in Paris, where his goal is to defend the bronze medal he won in Edmonton behind Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera (who beat him this year again in Flora London Marathon) and Kenyan Simon Biwott.
Tergat will not run in Paris, but in Berlin a month later. He will try to lower the world best of 2:05:38 set by USA's Khalid Khannouchi in 2002 London Marathon, when the Kenyan was 2nd in his PB 2:05:48. Tergat is also looking for his first victory in marathon, because in five races from his debut he was three times 2nd (London 2001 and 2002, Chicago 2001) and twice 4th (Chicago 2002 and London 2003), in spite of a wonderful average time of 2:07:27.
RESULTS (10 KM)
1 Tergat Paul KEN 29'07"
2 Matviychuk Vasyl UKR 29'11"
3 Baldini Stefano ITA 29'13"
4 Korir Philip KEN 29'17"
5 Chelanga Joshua KEN 29'22"
6 Caballero Javier SPA 29'23"
7 Dakho Naftal TAN 29'26"
8 Amor Rashid TUN 29'29"
9 Andriani Ottavio ITA 29'30"
10 Maccagnan Mattia ITA 29'35"
11 Gualdi Giovanni ITA 29'40"
12 Goffi Danilo ITA 29'46"
13 Del Soglio Roberto ITA 29'46"
14 De Nard Gabriele ITA 29'50"
15 Rothlin Viktor SUI 29'56"
Full results and details click here
