Jose Manuel Martinez (375) of Spain (© Getty Images)
If José Manuel Martinez runs in Osaka like he did yesterday night in Castelbuono, he will be no doubt one of the favourites for the podium. The Spaniard, who at the World Championships will run the full marathon, showed an impressive shape in the very tough Sicily's road race, one of the oldest in the world. The 1st Giro Podistico di Castelbuono was held in 1912 and this was the 82th edition.
In the last years, since the Giro has become an international race with so many champions at the start, nothing has ever happened like yesterday’s competition. Martinez did a solo run from the first metres, pushing the pace immediately on the first climbing. The 1.1km course in Castelbuono (repeated 10 times) which starts with an uphill stretch that is very hard for runners. When Martinez attacked, many thought: "Too early!”
It was not too early, as Martinez increased his advantage on his rivals lap-by-lap. At the end of the first lap, a pack with the other stars (2004 Olympic champion Stefano Baldini, 2004 New York marathon winner Hendrick Ramaala, the king of European cross country Sergiy Lebid and many Africans) was already 11 seconds behind the leader. At the end of the 3rd lap the gap had increased to 17 seconds and at halfway (17:01 the split) to almost half a minute.
While Martinez continued his solo run, during the 7th lap Baldini lost contact from the pack. The Spaniard reached the maximum advantage at the beginning of last lap: 40 seconds. He crossed the line with a time of 34:19, not so far from the course record: 33:46 clocked by Martin Lel in 2004.
The gap reduced to 31 seconds just because Lebid showed his well known sprint, taking the 2nd place. Kenya's Pius Muli, who in 1999 was World Youth 3000m champion, closed in 3rd, ahead of Uganda's Moses Aliwa and Jeoffrey Kusuru. Ramaala, who is entering world marathon as well, was just 6th, 44 seconds behind Martinez. Even worst was Baldini's race: 9th with a time of 35'29".
"I'm very happy for this win. In 2003 I was 3rd here, this time I interrupted the 'African power'," Martinez said after the race. Last win by an European athlete had been 18 years ago: Italy's Salvatore Bettiol took the honours in 1989.
"This was my first and last race before Osaka," Martinez added. "I had trained in altitude in Spain for a couple of months and came down at sea level just last week. My goal is to run a very good marathon." Earlier this year Martinez, who was a 10,000m European champion in 2002 and last year got the European silver at the same distance, closed out in second at the Rome Marathon with a time of 2:10:12. "I did my choice, I'm over on the track, I will run just road races and marathons."
As ever the streets of Castelbuono were crowded with spectators watching the race and almost everybody hoped to see Baldini on the top of the podium. "Unfortunately this is not a good period for me," Baldini admitted honestly. "Today's race confirmed it was a wise choice not to run the Worlds. In training I was not bad, I hoped to run much better."
Baldini has in his mind two goals for 2007. "I would like to run the World Half Marathon Championships in Udine," he added. "Then I will run a marathon this fall, after my DNF in London Marathon I don't have the qualifying time for Beijing 2008 yet and I don't want to risk." He has the title to defend.
Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF
Selected results (11.3km)
1. José Manuel Martinez, ESP, 34:19
2. Sergiy Lebid, UKR, 34:50
3. Pius Muli, KEN, 34:51
4. Moses Aliwa, UGA, 34:52
5. Jeoffrey Kusuru, UGA, 34:55
6. Hendrick Ramaala, RSA, 35:03
...
9. Stefano Baldini, ITA, 35:29
