Giacomo Leone (ITA) (© Getty Images)
Italy’s 1996 New York marathon winner Giacomo Leone from Italy sets his Olympic hopes on a fast race at the San Antonio marathon in Padua on Sunday 25 April.
Leone, a fifth placer at the Olympic Games in Sydney and the former Italian record holder with 2:07:54 (Otsu 2001), needs to run in the 2:09 -2:10 to keep his Olympic ambitions alive, as the favourites for the third and final team berth for Athens are currently - Ruggero Pertile (first in Rome with 2:10:13) and Alberico Di Cecco (second in Turin with 2:09:29).
Leone returns to Padua where he finished second in 2:11:23 behind the Kenyan Douglas Rono in his last marathon in spring 2002.
Leone’s main contenders in Padua this Sunday are the kenyans Isaac Kiprono (PB 2:09:59 set in Rotterdam 2001), second at the 2000 Venice Marathon, and Francis Kipketer (PB 2:11:04), second in Carpi last year.
The line-up is completed by the spaniard Javier Caballero, a two time 2:11 runner (PB 2:10:41 set in Milan 2001) and the Italians Giovanni Ruggiero (PB 2:09:53 set in Neaples in 2001) and Francesco Ingargiola (PB 2:08:48 which earned him the third place at the Rome Millennium Marathon in 2000).
The course record of 2:10:38 was set by the surprising Ethiopian Dawit Trfe last year.
Women's race -
Maria Dolores Pulido Fernandez from Spain leads the line-up in the women’s race. The Spaniard, who will run her first ever marathon in Padua, ran the half-marathon in 1:10:27 in Azkoitia. Tiziana Alagia (PB 2:27:54 set in Turin in 2001) will pursue her Olympic goal after winning the Stramilano Half Marathon on 4 April in her last competitive test.
Martha Tenorio from Equador will try to lower her national record of 2:27:58 to qualify for next summer’s Olympic Games. Africa will be represented by Anne Kosgei, second in Venice in 2002 in 2:30:09 and the Ethiopian Mulu Sekoba, born in 1984, who may produce a surprise on Sunday.
The 1998 New York marathon winner Franca Fiacconi holds the women course record with 2:30:20.
