Cinque Mulini: Italy's bonkers cross country race

The Cinque Mulini or ‘five mills’ race remains one of the classic cross country challenges. Ahead of Sunday’s 77th running of the annual event spikesmag.com delves into the rich history of the unique Italian competition.

It is known as one of the world’s greatest cross country races. Athletes scramble over banks and through ditches on a combination of dirt road and grass during five gruelling 2000m laps.

Yet for all the Cinque Mulini’s colourful flavour its iconic image remains its watermills, which the athletes run through as part of this unique cross country test.

Distance running legends such as Kenenisa Bekele, John Ngugi, Paul Tergat, Grete Waitz and Khalid Skah have all triumphed in past races. Olympic champions such as Haile Gebrselassie, Lasse Viren, Seb Coe and Derartu Tulu have competed as well.

Vito Garofalo, the meeting director between 1984 and 2003, has seen many changes in the long history of the race but believes two main factors have contributed to its success.

“First of all, years ago there were not that many sporting events organised and ours was the first race to attract international athletes – not only Europeans but also Africans,” explained Garofalo.

“And [secondly] also because of the course. It is not a particularly nice course, like the race at Edinburgh race [at Holyrood Park] which is absolutely beautiful, but going through the mill makes it so different from anything else.”

The race was formed in the small town of San Vittore Olona – which lies some 25km north west of Milan – in 1933 by the local sporting club as a direct response to a neighbouring town organising its own race between seven clock towers.

With the town characterised by the river Olona the inaugural race passed through many watermills, although as Garofalo stresses the first race very nearly never got off the ground because of a snowstorm the day before.

“Organisers had to dig through and just managed to clear the snow,” he explains.

In the late 1930s it was modified into 12km circuit which passed through all five mills, which gives the race its name, and has continued without interruption ever since.

“The race was even run during the last two or three years of the [Second World] War and with local and regional runners.”

Throughout the 1950s the race attracted international athletes with Hamed Labidi the first overseas winner in 1954.

Yugoslavia’s Olympic marathon silver medallist Franjo Mihalic was a three-time winner in 1957, 1958 and 1961, however, according to Garafalo, the turning point for the race, in terms of its international appeal, came in 1965 when the USA’s Olympic 10,000m champion Billy Mills triumphed in the Cinque Mulini.

Since then the race, which is still an IAAF permit event, has gone from strength to strength and consistently attracted world-class fields.

Great Britain’s David Bedford is the only man to win both the junior and senior races, achieving the feat in 1969 and 1972, and he believes the race's appeal lies in its uniqueness.

“It gets massive support from the local community, has got a history and is different from any other race which gives it its kudos,” Bedford, a former world 10,000m record holder, explains.

“I can’t remember a race where you go up and down concrete steps in a cross country event.”

Italian distance running great Franco Fava is another who has an undying passion for the great race. He finished runner-up in the senior race in 1974 and believes the race holds a certain "magic".

“It has a very long tradition and many former champions have taken part in the race," explained Fava now a journalist with Corriere dello Sport. “The race is special with the public because it attracts the best runners but is also a difficult course because it is so narrow and it is difficult to pass other runners.”

The race has also undergone many changes in more recent years. The race is now run over five 2000m laps and only goes through one semi-working mill – the Mulino Meraviglia mill.

More changes are planned for next year with a greater section of the race to be run alongside the river Olona.

However, according to Garofalo the race, which is screened live on Italian TV, still holds a special place in the affections of many Italian people.

“It [still] means a lot and is important within both the local community and the athletic community,” he explains.

Among the leading athletes competing in this year's race are World steeplechase record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar and Ukraine's eight-time European cross country champion Sergiy Lebid. World Junior 1500m champion Stephanie Twell of Great Britain competes in the women's race.