Chiappinelli and the Italian record in the marathon: analysis by Rondelli

Improved by 4 minutes and 22 seconds in a top-level marathon race this isn’t something that happens every day. As well as moving from twentieth position on the all-time national lists to first place even setting the new Italian record with 2h05.24. The author of this extraordinary feat is the 27-year-old Yohanes Chiappinelliathlete of the sports group dei Carabinieri of Bologna. The story of Yohanes, born in 1997 ad Addis Ababais common to that of many other African boys who were adopted by Italian families who then supported them in their sporting practice. He had running in his destiny. But let’s try to rewind the career of the new Italian marathon record holder. That the boy adopted by Mr and Mrs Chiappinelli and taken to live with them in Siena had any talent for middle distance races, we have to go back to twelve years ago, when, in 2012 in Jesolo, Yohanes won the tricolor cadet title in the 2000 meters with 5.29.15, a new Italian record.

Trained by Maurizio Cito in the following years Chiappinelli dedicated himself body and soul to steeplechase competitions, obtaining prestigious results. See the European junior champion titles and promising names 3,000 steeplechases and the bronze medal at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin. The following year, al Golden Gala in Romerunning in 8.24.26 establishes his personal best. It would seem like the beginning of a further leap in quality, but instead that result became the peak of his steeplechase career. In the following two years Yohanes no longer improved. His last race in the 3000m steeplechase, finished in 8.25.32, is dated Rovereto 27 June 2021. His second technical life begins in March 2022 when Yohanes leaves his previous coach to move to the Tuscany Camp in San Rocco a Pilli to be trained by Giuseppe Giambronevolcanic deus ex machina, of the training center located on the outskirts of Siena.

Progress is immediate. They arrive in the autumn of the same year the Italian record for the 10km road race with 27.50 and the half marathon record with 1h.00.45. In February 2023, in Seville, he also made his marathon debut with a comforting 2h09.46 and then in August he took tenth place in 2h11.12 at the world championships in Budapest. A great result. With some regrets given that, up to 600 meters from the finish line, Yohanes was still fourth. 2024, however, starts immediately uphill thanks to a stress microfracture in the pelvis. Then, with only 60 days of training in his legs, in April he tries to compete in Hamburg to look for the Olympic pass to Paris. An unsuccessful attempt because after 35 kilometers he is forced to stop. At that point, preparation for the Valencia marathon on December 1st begins. First with a training period in May at the 1500 meters of Monte Amiata. Then with a subsequent period of work in August at 1,800 meters in Livigno. Altitude aside, how did the new Italian marathon record holder train? His coach Giuseppe Giambrone explains it to us: “Twelve training sessions per week. I rest on Sunday. Two hundred kilometers for every six days of work.”

A very qualitative menu, as indeed one must do nowadays to face a marathon of the highest level. After the fireworks last December 1st in Valencia, in 2025 the objectives of the standard bearer of the Carabinieri Sports Group it will be the European half marathon championships scheduled in Brussels in August and the world championships in Tokyo in mid-September.