News05 Mar 2006


Rotich and Cheruiyot, a fast, close battle - Rome-Ostia Half Marathon

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Kenya's William Rotich after his victory - Rome-Ostia Half Marathon (© Zorzi)

Kenya's William Rotich and Evans Cheruiyot confirmed to be rising stars of the half marathon distance, running very fast at the 32nd Rome-Ostia, held today. Rotich and Cheruiyot, who are coached by Italy's Gabriele Rosa, ran respectively 1:00:12 and 1:00:14. Only Haile Gebrselassie has run faster this year: the World record 58:55* in Tempe and 1:00:08 in Granollers. They surely would have broken one hour if weather conditions had been better.

The women's race was won by Bahrain's Nadia Ejjafini in 1:10:43.


MEN – Close fought in strong wind condition

A strong wind bothered the athletes for the whole race, but mostly in the last 2km along the seaside. "We could have run 59:45 today," Rotich said firmly after the race. Cheruiyot suffered the wind even more, as he is much thinner than his countryman. One month ago he had beaten Rotich in Eldoret, showing they both were in very good shape. At more than 2000m above sea level Cheruiyot had run 1:01:39. 9 better than Rotich. "There I understood that they had improved very much," said Rosa, "today I had the confirmation."

In the first half of today's race, on a course that followed the many up-and-downs along the long street that links Rome to Ostia, the pack, led by Justus Kiprono and Kenneth Kiplimo, started not really fast, crossing 3km (8:51). However, the following 2km showed clearly the Kenyans' goals. At 5km (14:22, 5:31 the 2km split), just Cheruiyot and Rotich had been able to follow the 'rabbits' Kiprono and Kiplimo. Others slowed down and among them was Italy's favourite Daniele Caimmi.

After the toughest part of the course, the Kenyans passed through 10km with a time of 28:40. On a slight downhill stretch Kiprono pushed very strong and the next 5km was covered in a stunning 13:59 (42:39 the split at 15km). At that point the pace makers dropped out and just Rotich and Cheruiyot remained in the lead, but they did not slow. Cheruiyot tried a pair of attacks, the last one with 1km to go, but Rotich was like a shadow until the final metres when after fighting shoulder-to-shoulder he took revenge for the Eldoret loss and beat Cheruiyot.

"I'm very satisfied," the winner said, "last year I was beaten by James Kwambai, so today I didn't want to lose again. It was hard in the wind, but I got it." Last year Rotich closed the race out in 1:01:22, his previous PB.

"Now I will train hard again, because my next goal is the Stramilano Half Marathon on 2 April, and then a 'real' debut in the marathon. I have already run one, but I wasn't ready and finished in 2:14." It was in Eindhoven last year, he was 13th (2:14:50). Rotich is 25 and trains in Kapsait with Eric Kimaiyo's group. Cheruiyot, who is 25 as well, is from Iten.

Italy’s Daniele Caimmi took 3rd place more than 3 minutes behind and was very disappointed at the end of the race. "I feel well and today I would like to have shown it," he said, "but this was not a race for me. I could have run under 1:02, perhaps my PB 1:01:35, but I remained alone after 4km." He will be in Rome again at the end of the month for the full marathon. "I'm confident that I can run a good race."

WOMEN – another ‘ head to head’ until 16km

The women's race was also a beautiful head-to-head battle as well. After 10km, just Bahrain's Moroccan-born Nadia Ejjafini and last year's winner Rosalba Console were leading. They passed through that point with a time of 33:32.

The key point of the race was on a short uphill stretch at 16km, where Ejjafini took a little advantage on her rival and steadily increased the lead more and more.

"With such a wind I could hardly run," said Console, who suffered very much in the last part of the race. "I came back yesterday from an unlucky training camp in Namibia," she continued, "After four years without any flu, there I got a very heavy one, and I had a 40 degrees temperature one day. I could not train as planned for ten days." She finished with a time of 1:11:03, while last year she had set her PB 1:09:34.

For the 26-year-old Ejjafini this was her first serious half marathon since 1998: "Then I had run 1:14 but today I'm much better prepared."

 Italy's Gloria Marconi, who last year was out for injuries, took a good 3rd place.

Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF

*World record pending ratification


Selected results

Men's race
1. William Rotich, KEN, 1:00:12
2. Evans Cheruiyot, KEN, 1:00:14
3. Daniele Caimmi, ITA, 1:03:15
4. Antonello Petrei, ITA, 1:03:43
5. Gabriele De Nard, ITA, 1:03:45
6. Kenneth Kiplimo, KEN, 1:03:53
7. Ruggero Pertile, ITA, 1:04:00
8. Joseph Lomala, KEN, 1:04:06
9. Philemon Kipkering, KEN, 1:04:43
10. Ottavio Andriani, ITA, 1:05:06

Women's race
1. Nadia Ejjafini, BRN, 1:10:43
2. Rosalba Console, ITA, 1:11:03
3. Gloria Marconi, ITA, 1:13:30

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