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Stefano Baldini (born May 25, 1971 in Castelnovo di Sotto, Emilia-Romagna, Italy) is an Italianathlete and is the current Olympic and European champion in the marathon.Baldini started off his athletics career as a successful long distance runner. His first major success was winning the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 1996. After that he chose to focus on the marathon. In 1997, Baldini made his breakthrough in the marathon world finishing second, two seconds behind António Pinto in London Marathon and third in New York City Marathon.At the Rome Marathon in 1998, Baldini won his first marathon. After he became European Marathon Champion in 1998.After a disappointing 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where Baldini failed to finish the marathon, he came back with a second place in the Turin Marathon and winning a bronze at the 2001 World Championships. He also won the Madrid Marathon in 2001.In 2003, Baldini finished second again at the London Marathon to then the 2000 Olympic Champion and 2001 World champion in the marathon, Gezahegne Abera in a close final sprint. He then proceeded to win his second bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships.At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Baldini became the Olympic champion in the marathon. The marathon was run in hot and humid weather. The race had the marathon world record holder, Paul Tergat and the 2003 World champion, Jaouad Gharib.Baldini won the gold by a 34 second margin over Mebrahtom Keflezighi, breaking the course record with a time of 2:10:55. He covered the second half of the race in a remarkable 63:18 and the 5 km split from 35 km to 40 km in an extraordinary 14:13.Baldini lowered his own Italian national record and personal best at the London Marathon in 2006, placing fifth in 2:07:22 and then won a second European gold medal in the marathon at the 2006 European Championships. He also finished sixth at the New York City Marathon.After a disappointing 2007 season where Baldini did not finish the London Marathon, Baldini chose to run the New York City Marathon where he finished 4th. >> By WikiPedia
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