Yeman Crippa goes to European Championships by way of Kenya

The words of Yeman Crippa

“It will be an even more important meet because this time we are going to Kenya to prepare for the European home cross, so there will be even more attention than in past years.”

Suitcases packed, Yeman Crippa will board the plane Wednesday that will take him to the Rift Valley, the temple of running, “the home of champions,” at an altitude of 2,300 meters in the village of Iten. Europe’s 10,000-meter king and 5,000-meter bronze medalist will stay on the African continent for five weeks, until Nov. 30, just a handful of days before the last major event of the season, which will see him busy at the Parco della Mandria in Venaria Reale (Turin) chasing another continental cross-country podium.

“We will try to do quantity and quality both for the European Championships and for the upcoming season,” explains the Fiamme Oro star, “as always we will work as a group together with the very strong African boys training in the Rift Valley, so that we will be ready for Piedmont 2022. The azure will leave together with twins Osama Zoghlami (Aeronautica) and Ala Zoghlami (Fiamme Oro), respectively a bronze medalist at the European Championships in the 3000 steeplechase and ninth place at the Olympics in the same specialty: the Sicilian brothers are scheduled to work for three weeks, until November 17. In the coming days the blue trio will be joined by coach Massimo Pegoretti to work between the highland dirt and the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret at an altitude of 2100 meters. In Yeman Crippa’s plans, as known, there is also a marathon debut, scheduled between the end of February and the first half of March: the staff of the 26-year-old from Trentino is screening at least three or four possible locations for the debut.