Zanardi achieves his goals in New York

Alessandro Zanardi has acomplished his goal at the ING New York City Marathon, by setting a great result on his first outing. The Italian drive completed his first race in the famous road marathon on the 42.2 kilometers long course from Staten Island to Manhattan’s Central Park in 1 hour, 33 minutes and 17 seconds.

“The target was to get into the first five and I crossed the finish line in fourth position,” an extremely happy Zanardi said just a few hours after his finish. “I am extemely happy. I expected to achieve a good result, but actually not so good!” Zanardi continued.

“I trained a lot during the last month, and I knew I could cover the distance in little more than 90 minutes, but everybody kept on saying that it would have taken at least ten more minutes in New York. Finally I proved that I could do it and this will remain one of the most amazing experiences in my life.”

This morning it almost seemed as Zanardi wasn’t able to race at all. “This is a real satisfaction, especially considering that this morning, after setting off from the hotel with the handbike, a problem to the steering absorber made me fear not to be able to take part to the competition.”

But in the end, Zanardi could race and finished just 16 minutes after the race winner, Alejandro Albor form California who clocked a time of 1:17:48.