John Cheruiyot Korir in Meru (© Omulo Okoth)
Milan, ItalyMilan will renew the tradition of the Stramilano, the popular road race which celebrates the 37th edition on Sunday 6 April. The Stramilano will cap a historic week for Milan after the announcement that the Northern Italian city will host the Expo World’s Fair in 2015.
The Stramilano will attract once again 50,000 amateurs who will take part in the 12 km mass race which starts on Sunday morning at 9 o’clock from Piazza del Duomo and finishes in the Napoleonic Stadium Arena Civica. The 5407 runners who will take part in the International Half Marathon race will start from Piazza Castello and cross the finish-line in the Arena Civica named after the late Milan sports writer Gianni Brera.
The Stramilano Half Marathon is set to be an African affair. Last year’s winner Philemon Kipchumba Kisang, who crossed the finish-line in 60:55 in 2007, will face his compatriots Hosea Macharinyang and John Cheruiyot Korir.
Macharinyang, who was born in 1986, will run his first ever Half Marathon race one week after finishing eleventh at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh. During his young career he finished sixth in his debut in the World Cross Country Championships in 2004, fourth in 2005 as a junior. In his senior career he finished sixth in 2006 and fifth in 2007. This year he made the Kenyan team for Edinburgh thanks to his third place at the national trials in Nairobi. On the track he ran a 5000 metres PB of 13:09.85 in 2007.
John Korir Cheruiyot set his Half-Marathon PB of 60:47 in 2004 when he finished fourth at the Stramilano.
The Ethiopian team will feature Asnake Fekadu who ran 2:11:04 in the Dubai Marathon on 18 January and Abate Astatke who will run his first ever Half Marathon race outside Ethiopia.
Rachid Berradi, the last Italian runner to win the Stramilano in 2002 when he set the national record of 60:22, will carry the major hopes for Italian fans. Berradi has moved from his native city Palermo to Rieti to be coached by former 3000m Steeplechase star Angelo Carosi (European silver medallist in Helsinki 1994).
The only top name in the women’s race will be Ornella Ferrara, a World Marathon bronze medallist in Gothenburg 1995. 39-year-old Ferrara will try to bounce back from the unlucky Rome Marathon where she was forced to drop out of the race. After recovering from surgery on her Achilles tendon Ferrara made a remarkable comeback last October finishing second at the Carpi Marathon in 2:30:22. In January she made the trip to the Dubai Marathon where she finished eleventh in 2:37:40.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
