When Yeman Crippa enters the room dedicated to his reception within the Italian Consulate in New York, the day after the marathon, he is welcomed by an applause of joy and pride. Wear black clothes that accentuate the physicist unleashed by marathon. Bring the dreads loose.
The second on the podium at the New York Marathon is Trentino, he moved to Italy from Ethiopia when he was five years old. “Here I have all my friends, my family” continues to say, rightly, at the headquarters of the Italian Consulate in New York, where legally it is still at home, in Italy.
Many times he is asked with admiration how he felt during the long performance. “If I have to remember an emotion, it is that I felt a little insecure to face the last part of the race with all these athletes”. Its time, 2h06m14s, is the shortest time ever made by an Italian in the marathon of New York, as well as being the first blue on the podium in the last thirty years.
The Italian console, Giuseppe Pastorelli, is amazed by its apparent calm during the performance. “Since we were in three I started to see the race in a different way, I had the podium at hand, I lived it more serenely and I enjoyed it,” the blue athlete answered.
The New York Marathon has a historic route, beginning in Staten Island, going up the Verrazzano Bridge, up to the last kilometers, from 35 to 41, which wind between Harlem and Central Park. Crippa arrived eight days before in New York, “a little to dispose of jet lag, a little to be focused on the race”.
He went to run in the last seven kilometers, the “most tough part, with the ups-downs inside the park”. On the day of the performance, the blue began to feel fatigue around 35 kilometers, when the group split up and found itself sharing the last part of the route with only a dozen athletes. He didn’t expect it.
“You see practically everything in the race, before the race there is little to decide or to organize, there are so many situations that are not predictable”. Crippa knew it would be a slow marathon, due to the urban path that has several climbs and descents. «I have made a beautiful path, I have not had any problems or problems, and I had the little dream, objective, to climb on the podium». When he found himself to you with the winner, the Swedish Andreas Almgren, in the final straight, also thought he could win. Mal in the final straight understood that he would not reach it.
When talking about future goals, it remains uncertain. “I still have to decide which might be the next marathon, what is the right path, I would like to make it a bit faster, there is London in spring… but my big goal is the Beijing World Championship next year”. Crippa continues by saying that he will discuss it with his coach, but he is focused on his priority: getting fit in September for his third world.
The blue athlete trains in the street, to maintain contact with asphalt, on flat soil. A remarkable difference with the ups-downs of Central Park that could have been a difficulty for him. “But the goal is to bring the mind back to the moment and not distract, if the insecurities begin to make a struggle that you are not accustomed to doing.”.
Pastorelli is curious about what is the percentage of a marathon running with the mind, and which with the body. «The mind is a great support, if the mind is not there, around the twenty-fifth come crisis that the head puts in place to challenge the physicist, to understand if it is all compact and ready to make a great result», is the answer of the blue athlete, which runs around the two hundred kilometers a week to prepare for the races.
Before he was interested in marathons, Crippa was practicing half-back at the European and world championships. “In Europe I was able to say mine, when I came to the world the best result I did was arrive seventh, and from there I said maybe it is better to stretch with distances, and then the sensations after the marathon are priceless”.
The Trentino athlete started working on long distances only in 2023, but coming among the first three at the New York Marathon, he will be automatically qualified to that of Los Angeles, for which he hopes to collect more experience and training. “Not always what you do in training is rewarded in the race.” But he is determined towards his goals and proud of his results for the country he represents. “My life was built here in Italy, I grew up here so when I think about the result I am happy for Italy”.
L’articolo Yeman Crippa, the Italian who came second to the New York Marathon proviene da IlNewyorkese.
