Baldini outsprints Kirui in Scicli 10km

Scicli, Catania, ItalyItaly’s Olympic marathon champion Stefano Baldini won the 16th Memorial Peppe Greco, a 10km road race held in Scicli, a little Sicilian town, yesterday. Baldini out-sprinted World Half Marathon champion,  Paul Kirui, becoming the first Italian to win the race since 1994 when it became an international event.

For 11 years, the race has been dominated by Africans, among them some of the best athletes in the world at the 10km distance: Haile Gebrselassie (who won four times in a row between 1995 and 1998), Paul Tergat (two wins and three second place behind Gebrselassie), Hailu Mekonnen, Charles Kamathi, and the last two winners, Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine.

Racing shoulder-to-shoulder in the last straight

Sihine could not come back to Scicli to defend last year's win as he will race at the World Half Marathon Championships in Edmonton next weekend, and at the last minute Helsinki bronze medallist Moses Mosop also did not reach Scicli. Therefore the pre-race favourites were Paul Kirui, the reigning World Half Marathon champion - but still not back to full fitness after injury - and Olympic 3000m Steeplechase champion Ezekiel Kemboi.

The race started at noon and largely, we would guess because of the hot weather, the racing was quite calm until the seventh lap.

At the start, Italy's Francesco Ingargiola and Kenya's Bisluke Kipkorir tried to break away but their early attempt lasted less than 8 minutes, and at the end of the 3rd lap the first proper leading pack was formed by 9 athletes, which largely stayed together for following 5 laps.

The main attack came from Paul Kirui, who during the 8th lap dropped everyone except Baldini and the other home-runner Daniele Caimmi but the latter was not able to stay with the first two for more than one lap and when the last lap began just Kirui and Baldini were left at the front. Baldini tried to push up the pace on the slightly uphill stretch, but Kirui kept shadowing him.

As the pair entered the finishing straight Kirui had moved into first position, but with 100m to go Baldini overcame him and won the race. The crowd of spectators really went crazy in their support of Baldini.

Baldini - Racing to get over Helsinki's disappointment

"I'm very happy, as I ran a very good race even if I'm not in top shape," Baldini said after the race. "After Helsinki I did not run for a couple of weeks, but I immediately decided to start racing. I would like to forget as soon as possible what happened in at Worlds. I have not even seen the tape yet." His first race was in Prague on 11 September, then in Capri two weeks ago. Now he has already planned other two 10km race in Italy, the Giro al Sas in Trento (Oct 8) and the Giro di Pettinengo (Oct 16).

"I ran very well also tactically," he said about his race. "I knew that Kirui was the man to follow. He is not an unbeatable sprinter, so I was confident that I could have beaten him in the last 100 metres. I got it."

"I came back from Kenya 4 days ago," Kirui said. "At home we have 15 degrees, here I found about 25 and I suffered. I'm also coming back from a knee injury. I'm improving day-by-day, but I'm still far from my best shape. This is why I will not be in Edmonton next week to defend my half marathon title. Now I would like to focus on the New York City marathon. I want to show that I can run a good race at the marathon distance."

Very disappointing was Olympic champion Kemboi. He lost ground during the 7th lap and finished in very fatigued 12th place, 2 minutes behind Baldini. "He tried to stay with the pack until he could," his manager Paolo Traversi explained. "This distance does not fit to him, it is too long."

Alberto Zorzi for the IAAF

Results - Men's race (10km)
1. Stefano Baldini  ITA  29:36
2. Paul Kirui  KEN  29:37
3. Daniele Caimmi  ITA  29:48
4. Bisluke Kipkorir  KEN  29:51
5. Justus Kiprono  KEN  29:53
...
12. Ezekiel Kemboi  KEN  31:34