Kenyan athlete Thomas Lokomwa
has won the 10K Kenya Expo Run in Milan, the first running
competition hosted by a world's fair.
Organized by Athletics Kenya, the country's track and field
federation, with Milanese half marathon Stramilano and the
Italian federation of track and field, the race on Thursday
night registered the participation of 1,000 athletes.
Lokomwa, who has won the previous two Stramilano running
events, won in 28:46.
The women's race was won by Kenya's Caroline Chenono in
33:48.
Earlier on Thursday, a group of 500 amateur athletes of all
ages took part in the 3K Expo Family Run along the fair's
pavilions, which ended at the Coffee Cluster.
The food-themed Universal Exhibition, with its national
pavilions and thematic clusters, had a record August for
visitors, boosting tourism in Milan by 49% from last year,
according to data released this week.
And while the city is preparing to host another major
event, Milan Fashion Week on September 23-28, Tourism Councillor
Franco D'Alfonso said that in the four months since Expo opened
on May 1 numbers were up 20% on the previous year.
He forecast that Milan ''will break through the
eight-million-visitor wall'' this year thanks to Expo.
And a survey released on Thursday by the Milan Chamber of
commerce said foreign visitors gave the world's fair a rating of
9 out of 10 in July and August.
Italians gave it a rating of 7/8 out of 10 over the same
period, the study found.
The survey was carried out through Voices from the Blogs, a
spin-off from Milan University that analyzed comments on the web
over the two months.
Foreigners accounted for a total of 522,000 comments on
line in July and August, followed closely by Italians with
513,000.
One in five comments by foreigners were posted from Italy.
Visitors from the United States accounted for 44% of
comments, followed by the UK with 3%, the Netherlands and France
with 2% and Japan and Spain with 1%.
Meanwhile, planned events slated to attract Expo visitors
will include a ''Nutella Day'' on September 13, when Italian
chocolate manufacturer Ferrero will hold an all-day breakfast
both at Milan's Expo and in Rome.
Ferrero will distribute 50,000 free breakfasts at the
world's fair and will hold a similar event at Rome's Ponte
Garibaldi, hoping to achieve a Guinness world record.
Italian television host Alessandro Cattelan will
participate in the event in Milan while the band Elio e le
Storie Tese will be in Rome.
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