Roma Appia Run drops ace Iliass Aouani
Roma Appia Run drops ace Iliass Aouani
The Roma Appia Run drops the ace. On Sunday, April 16, at the starting ribbons of the prestigious Capitoline race will be in the front row Iliass Aouani, the new Italian record holder in the 42.195 after his sensational performance in the Barcelona Marathon last March 19. The Italian athlete will be running the Roma Appia Run for the first time, but he is a candidate as the number one favorite for the final victory.
Born in Fkih Ben Salah (Morocco) on September 29, 1995, Aouani moved to Italy with his family when he was already two years old to join his father who had already arrived in our country to settle in Milan in the Ponte Lambro area, after a period spent in Sesto San Giovanni. With running he began in 2011, without having played any other sport previously, enticed by student competitions. He soon realized he had a knack for long distances at the San Donato Milanese camp under the guidance of Claudio Valisa, former coach of blue champion Gennaro Di Napoli, winning the junior 5,000 tricolor in 2014 with Atletica Riccardi.
After high school science he moved overseas: at first a year in Beaumont, Texas, at Lamar University with coach Tony Houchin, but he wanted to choose a more competitive team, so he studied four more years at Syracuse in upstate New York (the same university attended by Joe Biden, the president of the United States) to earn a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in structural engineering.
Coached in his first two seasons by Chris Fox and then by Brien Bell, in 2019 he ran a 28:25.36 in the 10,000, reaching the NCAA finals. In 2021 he returned to Italy and chose to pursue athletics, in a Casone Noceto jersey, moving to Ferrara with coach Massimo Magnani. He became the first to win in the same season the Italian overall titles in cross, 10,000 on track, 10 km on road and half marathon, improving over all distances. After joining Fiamme Azzurre, he achieved the best ever marathon debut for an Italian in 2022 with 2h08:34 in Milan. On March 19, 2023 in the Barcelona Marathon, he set the new Italian record for the distance with 2h07’16”.
