Yeman Crippa ready for marathon debut in Milan
The words of Yeman Crippa
Experience. Adventure. “Tasting the marathon.” “Finding out if it can be my future.” He repeats it several times, Yeman Crippa, just hours before his marathon debut set for Sunday morning in Milan (televised on Sky Sport Arena from 10 a.m.). It is inevitable that there is expectation around the distance debut of the European 10,000 champion, the first and so far only Italian able to breach the one-hour wall in the half marathon, with a time of 59:26 in Naples last season. A pressure that motivates him even more: “In these ten days in Italy, back from Kenya, I started to feel some tension. But positive. I started to feel the competition, I got into it. It’s something I’m enjoying and I can’t wait to put on my shoes and outfit to start the new adventure. I am convinced that we can do well, there were no hiccups, I took all the steps I needed to get ready for the debut, and I finished a full workload of everything from variations, to mids, to longs, without anticipating or postponing the times. Mentally it charged me up. It is the first experience and I want to live it to the fullest.”
Three weeks in Monte Gordo, Portugal, in January, between finishing third in Campaccio and second in Cinque Mulini. Then six weeks in the land of champions, in Iten, in the Rift Valley, grinding out kilometers at 2400 meters together with Kenyan runners from February 7 to March 19: “My physique responded well to the training and it was not expected,” says the 26-year-old from Trentino of the Fiamme Oro, “I totally immersed myself in the local reality, as if I were a ‘Kenyan marathon runner,’ resting on Sundays and with a maximum of 176 km per week and an average of 165-168 km, alternating with work on the track and in the gym. I ran with people from 2h05, 2h06, we encouraged each other and helped each other to ‘control’ each other head on. Some of them will make their debut in Paris on the same day, but two will be with me as pacemakers.” They are Wisley Kipkemoi who is expected to pilot it until the 28th kilometer, and Laban Kiprop called to escort it until the 35th.
A complex, treacherous gear like the 42.195 kilometers always requires the utmost respect as we approach the big day: “It’s not all automatic, you can’t do the math beforehand, surprises in marathons are always around the corner and I’ve been told this by many – Crippa observes – personally what interests me is to arrive at the end happy, and to be able to say that it will be my race of the future. We hypothesized a 1h03:17-1h03:20 pace to the half with a 3:00-per-kilometer pace. Or at least that’s the idea. Then of course at the 30th kilometer I will begin to feel the responses coming from my physique.” The projection, tables in hand, is under two hours and seven minutes.
Two Azzurri, in the past weeks, have run under two hours and eight: Iliass Aouani Italian record in Barcelona with 2h07:16, Eyob Faniel 2h07:53 in Osaka on his return after fifteen months. “They are two already established talents and both are an incentive. I did not expect Aouani’s record, he did very well, it is not easy to run like he did. They always say the more marathons you do, the more you understand it: for me Sunday will be all about discovery. The course, I know, is smooth (Aouani himself debuted there last year in 2h08:34, best Italian debut ever, ed). The weather looks good and for me the ideal would be 12 degrees. The opponents are many and all more or less within my reach. In short, the conditions are all there. Now it’s just up to me.”
