Stefano Baldini is a championship marathon runner

By John Bagratuni Aug 13, 2006, 16:02 GMT

Italian Stefano Baldini poses with his gold medal as winner of the men\'s marathon race at the European Athletics Championships 2006 in Gothenburg, Sunday 13 August 2006. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT

Gothenburg, Sweden - Stefano Baldini shook off the disappointment of 2005 and the incident of 2004 when he confirmed his status as a big championship marathon runner on Sunday.

One year after dropping out of the world championship race with a hamstring problem the 35-year-old claimed his third major event career title at the European championships.

Baldini now has European titles from 1998 and 2006 and Olympic gold from 2004, plus two bronze from the 2003 and 2005 worlds.

And he has more in mind.

'This is a very important victory in my career, I am going step by step towards the next Olympic Games where I want to defend my title from Athens. Today was just right towards (Beijing) 2008,' he said.

Baldini said he was not sure whether he will run a big city marathon in autumn, with the big races taking place in New York and Berlin.

The Italian still lacks a major title at these races, having finished second twice in London (1997, 2003) and third in New York 1997.

But Baldini, who is divorced from sprinter Vima de Angeli and in March opened his own sports shop 'Baldini Fun Runners', was at his best on Sunday - winning without all controversy which had marred the Olympic race two years ago.

He took the gold after then leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was pushed off the track briefly by notorious Irish priest Cornelius 'Neil' Horan in the late stages of the race. Baldini would have most likely won the race anyway as he was rapidly closing in on Lima, but the incident overshadowed the Olympic race.

With police on bicycles as protection on hand Sunday, he shook off Swiss rival Viktor Roethlin at the 40-kilometres mark on a wet and windy afternoon to win in 2 hours 11 minutes 32 seconds.

The outsider Roethlin took second place with 2:11:50 while fancied Spaniard Julio Rey had to settle for third place in 2:12.37 hours.

'It is my second gold, so it's a big day for me. It was perfect weather for a marathon despite the wind,' said Baldini.

'I felt slight cramps after 35km but otherwise I had no major crisis. The pace was slowing down then, so I made my move at 40km.'

Roethlin, who has top 10 finishes in Berlin and New York to his credit, was the most active man in the field as he constantly attacked and was awarded with his best career race for second place.

'Stefano Baldini is too strong for me. So I would not that I lost gold. I won silver and it feels great. Last night I dreamt I would win the silver and my dream came true,' he said.

Rey, who is the fastest European of the year with 2:06:52, missed his first major championship title yet again, getting bronze like in 2002 with a worlds silver from 2003 to his credit as well, due to unfortunate pre-race circumstances.

'One week before Gothenburg my son got some stomach problems which spread to the whole family. It took a lot of energy out of me,' Rey said.