By David Monti
March 4, 2009
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Sunday's second annual Lago Maggiore Half-Marathon from Stressa to
Verbania, Italy, will feature a strong elite field, race director Paolo
Ottone reported. Indeed, there is a very good chance that both the
men's and women's course records will be broken.
Kenyans Nicholas Manza Kamyaka (1:00:12 PB), Denis Ndiso (1:00:33) and
Jacob Yator (1:01:09) lead the list of male entrants. Manza won two
half-marathon last year in France, at Nancy (1:01:21) and Billancourt
(1:00:12). Given good conditions, Sergey Lebid's course record of
1:03:32 set in the inaugural edtion last year should go given that
there are ten men in the field who have career best times below 63
minutes.
On the women's side, Hungarian road warrier Anikó Kálovics, is the
leading entrant with a 1:08:58 personal best. Although very durable,
she may be a little tired from running the RAK Half-Marathon on Feb.
20, and the Almond Blossom Cross Country on March 1. Italian Gegia
Gualtieri (1:14:22 PB) and Monica Bottinelli (1:15:50 pb) are also in
the field. The course record of 1:14:50 was established by Italian
Melissa Peretti last year.
The race has also grown. "Last year we had 1500 runners," said Ottone.
"This year already 2012 registered with another four days to the
race." Ottone said registration would be open through Saturday at www.lagomaggiorehalfmarathon.com.
The race offers panoramic views of Maggiore Lake and the Borromeo Gulf with their famous islands.
