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.
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