16th March 2003: Italian cross country championships - 4000m - Rome, Italy
1st Luciano Di Pardo 11:19 Italy
2nd Stefano Scaini 11:22 Italy
3rd Domenico D'Ambrosio 11:26 Italy
4th Eduard Lahner 11:32 Italy
5th Rees Buck 11:35 New Zealand
I was a little apprehensive about this race as I was coming from a New Zealand track season and had only arrived in Rome 48 hours earlier. I decided beforehand to run as conservatively as possible while trying to maintain contact with the leaders in case I felt good in the latter stages. From the start I was in the front pack of approximately ten athletes with no one pushing the pace too much. At about the 1500m mark three guys made a significant break which strung the front group out as we came around for the start of the second of two laps. At 2km I was not comfortable and slowly dropped a couple places eventually slipping to eighth. In the final kilometre, which was mostly downhill, my body recovered a little and I passed three Italians to finish in fifth. I was happy with this place as I had no idea what level of competition to expect in this meet, and I was also pleased to get a solid performance leading up to Lausanne.
