http://sport.guardian.co.uk/athletics/story/0,10082,1458921,00.html
Duncan Mackay Thursday April 14, 2005 The Guardian If Stefano Baldini wins the Flora London Marathon on Sunday his father will celebrate the same way he did when his son won the Olympic marathon in Athens last summer. "He will milk the 200 cows on his farm," said the Italian runner. "They need milking twice a day - once at five in the morning, again at five in the afternoon. They produce milk for Parmigiano Reggiano, Italy's biggest cheese manufacturer. Since Athens they have also been sponsoring me." Baldini was born and brought up in the Reggiana region of Italy and still returns occasionally to his father's farm to drive a tractor. He is the eighth of 10 children and had the kind of hard rural upbringing familiar to his African rivals, walking miles to go to school. "That's my Kenya, stretching along the banks of the Crostolo River, down to the Po," he said with a broad sweep of his arm. It was in this setting that the seeds of Baldini's success in Athens were sown. He started as a nine-year-old, inspired by his older brother Marco, and has been running ever since. All that effort came to fruition when he crossed the line first in Greece at the age of 33, and he explained his longevity as a runner by saying: "I train well and I race well. I don't use drugs. I respect myself and my body. If you don't do that you don't run for so long." That success made a deep impression on his four-year-old daughter Alicia. "After Athens she wanted the Italian flag and the garland. She understands I did something special," said Baldini, who is divorced. His victory defied the experts who had said that the gold medal was destined for an African runner and that a European could not possibly win. "In every big-city marathon we have 15 or 20 Africans," said Baldini. "Perhaps only five of them will arrive at the finish line but they are one . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five; then it's Baldini. Every year the problem is bigger. But they have some problems in the championships. They don't have pacemakers, the weather is hot, sometimes the course is tough and they find it hard. My big quality is that I like these races." Baldini has always been an impressive performer in the London Marathon and has never finished outside the top 10 in his six appearances. But, until now, he has never been a headline-grabbing star. Even his second places here in 1997 and 2003 passed largely unnoticed. In Italy, though, it is a different matter. In the same manner as Kelly Holmes did in Britain after the Athens Games, Baldini swept the end-of-year popularity polls, finishing ahead of Italy's motorcycling hero Valentino Rossi in every one. "It was because the marathon has such a big history in Italy," he said. He was referring in part to the success of Gelindo Bordin, Italy's 1988 Olympic champion with whom he shares a coach in Lucio Gigliotti. But the most famous Italian marathon runner probably remains Dorando Pietri, who collapsed within sight of winning the 1908 Olympic marathon in London, a race that established the current distance for the event of 26 miles 385 yards. Baldini's birthplace of Castelnuovo di Sotto is only 15 kilometres (9.4 miles) from where Pietri was born. The legend of Pietri lives on in Italy. "Every time there is a marathon shown on television he is mentioned," said Baldini. It is strange sometimes how history comes together. Pietri was subsequently disqualified because he was helped across the line by an official but he was awarded a special cup by Queen Alexandra. The next occasion on which that happened was in Athens 96 years later when the Brazilian Vanderlei De Lima was given a special award by the International Olympic Committee after he was attacked by a London-based Irish priest while leading in Athens. Baldini claimed he would have caught De Lima anyway. "When I decided to go after him I picked up 25 seconds in two kilometres," he said. Baldini is receiving about $250,000 (£144,000) to run in London on Sunday and there have been other bonuses from sponsors. "I'm at the level of a Serie A [football] player," he said of his earning potential. "I have enough riches - but I'm not like a really top soccer player." Still, when he retires, there are always those cows which need milking twice a day . . . ENDS
