Milan City Marathon - Solomon Busendich and Marcella Mancini beat the heat in Piazza Castello
Running in terribly warm conditions, Solomon Busendich from Kenya clocked a time of two hours, ten minutes and thirty eight seconds as he bagged the top honours while competing in the 11th edition of the Milan City Marathon on 10 April.
The windy conditions accompanied with summer like weather mounting the temperature to 27 C, took an even greater dramatic toll for the Women’s competition. The local runner Marcella Mancini managed to cross the finishing line in Piazza Castello, the heart
of the Milan city, in two hours, forty one minutes and twenty four seconds. To grab the title, Mancini had to face a fierce Monica Kanyata Wangari, the Kenyan runner who covered the final kilometres with an average of 5 minutes per kilometre. For clocking
two hours, forty two minutes and fifty six seconds, Wangari managed to finish second in the race.
Ruggero Pertile, also a local runner, for crossing the finishing line in two hours, eleven minutes and twenty three seconds stood second in the Men’s event. The Kenyan runner Daniel ended up third for clocking two hours, thirteen minutes and four seconds.
In the Men’s race, as the contest began, Nickson Kurgat, the Kenyan pacer along with Gilbert Chepkwony set the early pace and crossed the initial five kilometres in fifteen minutes and one second, while the ten kilometres’ distance was crossed in thirty
minutes and thirty seven seconds. Accompanied with Daniel Limo, Daniel Too, Joel Kimurer Kemboi, Busendich and Pertile, the leading pack led the race half-way.
With Chepkwony leading rest of the pack, the half-way distance was crossed in one hour, four minutes and fifty seconds. Chepkwony led the race through the initial 30km and managed to cross the mark in one hour, thirty two minutes and thirty five seconds.
However, this was the point when his pace-making task was over and the pack of four athletes comprised of Busendich, Pertile, Limo and Too claimed the lead.
Going through the 32km mark, Busendich changed gears and went for breaking away with 33km split which he clocked in 2:56. The instant pace paid dividends and the Kenyan carved out a gap of about 40 seconds over Pertile and Too. Pertile, who was feeling rather
tired to close the gap created by Busendich, however, successfully managed the lead.
Grappling for the second position, Pertile, who was too tired to pull away at the distance of 38km managed to respond to the attack launched by Too, and caught up the Kenyan runner at 39km and surpassed him by the 40km.
After winning the title and talking to the media, Busendich said, “Last year I ran in Milan to get experienced but I dropped out after halfway. This year I came here to win. I broke away at 32km because I know Pertile who trained with me in Kenya and I was
aware that he could be very dangerous in the final stages. I felt the effect of the very warm conditions but I got used to it.”
On the Women’s side, Wangari led the race right from the start. She led by the half-way and managed to cross the mid-point in one hour, fourteen minutes and twenty one seconds. The Kenyan managed to increase the gap by the 30km which she covered in one hour,
forty seven minutes and thirteen seconds, but began to fade away after crossing the 34km mark. However, struggling on the track, she covered the 39th kilometer in 5:20 and gave a signal to her rivals that she was still there in the race.
Realising the weakness of her rival, Mancini began to close the gap and with two kilometres to go to the finishing line, over-took Wangari and bagged the victory in two hours, forty one minutes and twenty four seconds. This was the slowest winning time for
a woman runner in the history of Milan Marathon.
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