Bigger Than Ever, Roma-Ostia Signals Spring Is Near
The summers in the Italian capital are hot, and Romans normally take refuge at the nearby beaches of Ostia, about 20 kilometers to the west. And even though the first day of spring 22 days away, Sunday's 37th edition of the Mezza Maratona Roma-Ostia, Italy's largest half-marathon, reminds Italians that warmer weather is coming soon, and so are their trips to the beach.
"The start is in the town, and the finish is in the seaside," explained Laura Duchi, the energetic young president of the race's host club, Bancari Romani, and the event's race director. "In the summer, it is time to go to the seaside, and when you finish you see the sea."
And, organizers hope, that the record field of 12,000 entries will bring 10,000 actual finishers to the beach faster than ever (there were 8509 finishers last year). That's because the slightly downhill, point-to-point course from Rome to Ostia has been modified to reduce the distance along the water near the finish to just 300m, thus mitigating the chance for bothersome headwinds. The change was accomplished by extending the opening loop to three kilometers before the runners begin the long straightaway to Ostia on the Via Christoforo Colombo.
Leading that field will be the smiling face of Abreham Cherkos Feleke, the 21 year-old Ethiopian who in 2006 set the world youth record for 5000m of 12:54.19, still his personal best. His road racing experience is limited, but he ran 13:15 for 5 km on the road in Carlsbad in 2006, and made a fine marathon debut in Amsterdam last October in 2:07:29, finishing fourth.
Chasing Feleke will be Italy's Ruggero Pertile, the 2010 Torino Marathon champion who has run 1:02:17 for the half-marathon distance. Other contenders include Kenyans Abraham Chebii --whose 1:02:59 half-marathon best is misleading because he's run 12:52.99 and 27:04.20 on the track-- and Joel Kimurer, who clocked 1:00:09 when he won the Hervis Prague Half-Marathon last March.
Elite athlete coordinator Giampaolo Urlando has arranged a match-up of two of Europe's best athletes on the women's side. Jessica Augusto, the petite Portuguese who won the bronze medal at 10,000m at the European Championships last summer in Barcelona, will face off with Italy's Anna Incerti, whose bronze medal in Barcelona came in the marathon.
Although Augusto, who lives in Braga and whose longtime boyfriend is Eduardo Carvalho the Portuguese national goalkeeper, is better known for her exploits on the track, she is also an accomplished road runner. She won the Bupa Great North Run in 2009 in 1:09:08, still her personal best, and will be using tomorrow's race as a fitness test for April's Virgin London Marathon where she will make her marathon debut. She said over a plate of spaghetti pomodoro last night that she has been logging nearly 250 km per week in preparation for London, but that she slightly tapered her workload to be sharp for tomorrow.
Incerti, who is quickly becoming Italy's most popular distance runner, will be running her first race since finishing fourth at the Osaka International Ladies Marathon in Japan on January 30. There she set a personal best 2:27:33. Incerti, who is from Palermo and is married to Italian steeple chaser Stefano Scaini, won Roma-Ostia in 2009, clocking her career best for the distance of 1:09:24.
Also competing for the women's title will be Kenya's Monica Wangari (1:10:33 PB), Hungary's Krisztina Papp (1:10:53), Ethiopia's Abeba Zemichael and Gadse Bedane (no known performances to RRW), Ukraine's Olha Kotovska (1:14:16), Norway's Kirsten Marathon Melkevik (1:10:19), and China's Changqin Ding (1:20:01).
Duchi is particularly proud of the women's race here, both in quality and quantity. The field for a typical Italian road race only has about 12% women (compared to nearly 50% in the United States), but Roma-Ostia has about 20% women. She credits at least one innovation for her larger than average female participation: fashion.
"We are the first in Italy to have a different shirt for women," she said.
By David Monti (c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved; Used with permission
