TRIESTE – 20th Corri Trieste at the start, 8 very fast laps of 1.250km each with route totally closed to traffic, to be run to the best of one’s ability. As if it were a stadium, an athletic track for this event included in the national Fidal calendar and organized by ASD Promorun with the collaboration of the City of Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region. The start and finish will have in the background the central Piazza Venezia from which it will run on two straights through the city center and then overlook the sea.
More than 300 participants registered among competitive and non-competitive participants of the Ten, last year’s Kenyan winner Dickson Simba Nyakundi had clocked a time of 28’47”, winning the seventh best 10k race time on Italian soil. The organizers’ goal is to have winning athletes go under the 28′ wall for men and 32 minutes for women.
TOP RUNNERS -In the women’s race, the leading favorite is undoubtedly Kenyan Caroline Makandi Gitonga (Run2Gether), who last April 29 in the 5,000m at the Night Walk and Middle Distance Night in Milan earned the top step of the podium in 15’07″97. Gitonga (bib 5) is used to competing in Italy where in Turin in 2019 she set her personal best with a time of 32’02”. Among the Italians, the Sicilian, but adopted Triestine, Chiara Pianeta (Team Km Sport) will undoubtedly give her best. She will wear bib number 8 and wants to be in the fray despite recovering from an Achilles tendon problem.
In the men’s race among the best athletes at the start with bib number 4 is the Kenyan Castor Omweni Mogeni, who has in his legs the excellent 28’07” clocked in Arezzo last year. Spotlight also on the very young Ethiopian Ararso Negasa Gemeda (bib 3), on a personal best a few days ago at the Adizero road to records in Herzogenaurach when he crossed the finish line in 28’25”. Bib 2 for Burundian Celestin Ndikumana (Asd Atl. Futura Roma), who boasts the same record of 28:45″ over the distance as he did in Arezzo last year. He recently took victories in the 5000m at the Night Walk and Middle Distance Night in Milan and at the XXXII Meeting Città di Conegliano by clocking 13’31″96, respectively. e 13’18″74.
YASSINE RACHIK – Bib number 1 for this 20th Corri Trieste for Olympic marathon blue medalist Yassine Rachik (Fiamme Oro Padova), who has been present several times and on the podium at the Trieste Castles Race, the other event organized by Promorun that takes place in October. Rachik’s palmarès includes the 2016 Italian 5000m champion title, a bronze medal at the European U20 Championships in the 10000m in 2015, a bronze medal at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin in the marathon and a ninth-place finish at the 2019 London Marathon with 2h08’05”, his pb, just 46 seconds off the current Italian men’s record. In the 10km road race Rachik can boast a personal best of 28’45” recorded in Dalmine in 2017.
For Yassine, who already competed two weeks ago. winning the 10 Miglia Normanna in Aversa in 48’03” is a confirmation of a return to high-level racing after Two long years of absence due to various injuries: “Yes at the 10 Miglia Normanna I came back to the race and I did it by winning, and that gave me great energy right away ,” Rachik lets us know. After these years where it was impossible for me to run because of various injuries now coming back to run in Trieste is like coming home, it is always nice to run there among friends and I thank the organizers for the invitation.”
What has happened over the years is quickly said: “Even now I have some aches and pains, but that is normal for those who run at a high level. I had serious problems with the plantar fascia and then with the Achilles tendon but thanks to a first-rate staff assisted by the passionate and experienced Dr. Rodolfo Malberti together with the physiotherapy studio Salute e Sport I was able to solve it all avoiding surgery. It was a longer path, but for such a problem doing surgery is complicated, the risk was that I would never be able to return to running.”
The Moroccan-born Rachik, now 29, now has a second part of his competitive career ahead of him: “In the meantime, on Sunday I want to have a race in progression, I know it will be run hard but the goal can only be victory. Now I am looking for continuity and health, only then can results come in the future. With my lifelong coach Alberto Colli and the medical and physical therapy staff behind me, I feel that I have a winning team around me. Together we are dreaming big goals, having them by my side is a strong incentive to do well, to always give my best for them and for my Golden Flames team. It would be nice to come back and do a marathon in the fall, as well as I dream of and want the blue national team jersey, it’s wonderful, it gives you a crazy charge. I’m not just saying that, I really have chills now that I’m saying it.”
REGISTRATION – Today Saturday, May 20, it will be possible to register from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the registration center “ Trieste Villas ” at 34 Via Torino, Trieste or on race morning from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. near the start.
