Kenya’s 2010 World Cross Country Championship gold medallist Joseph Ebuya will be the star attraction at the 54th edition of the famous Campaccio cross country meeting in the Italian town of San Giorgio su Legnano, the venue of the 2006 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, on Thursday.
The European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting will also see Ebuya’s compatriots Leonard Komon, the 10km and 15km world record holder on the roads, and reigning 10,000m world junior champion David Masai on the start line of the men’s 10km race.
Many of the current top Italian runners will also take part in the famous cross country race, including the 2010 European Athletics Championships 10,000m bronze medallist Daniele Meucci and the former SPAR European Cross Country Championships junior and under 23 champion Andrea Lalli, who was sixth in the senior race last month in Portugal.
Marathoner Ruggero Pertile, who was the European Athletics Athlete of the Month in November, will swap his road racing flats for spikes and also be in action on Thursday.
The women’s 6km race will be predominantly a European affair. Hungary’s Aniko Kálovics, the 2003 SPAR European Cross Country Championships bronze medallist and six times a top 10 finisher, returns to defend the title she won 12 months.
The top Italian name, and potentially Kálovics’ toughest rival, will be the 2008 Olympic Games 3000m steeplechase finalist and Italian record holder Elena Romagnolo, who was second behind the Hungarian in 2010, finishing just three seconds in arrears.
Italy’s 2004 Olympic Games marathon champion Stefano Baldini, who competed 12 times at the Campaccio meeting, will be the special guest of the event after his recent retirement from international athletics.