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Renato Canova

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Renato Canova
Canova in a 2018 Italian television interview
Personal information
NationalityItalian
Born (1944-12-21) 21 December 1944 (age 80)
Turin, Italy

Renato Canova (born 21 December 1944) is an Italian athletics coach. He is known to have coached numerous athletes who have won medals in top international middle- and long-distance competitions, and who have set world records.[1]

Over 50 of Canova's athletes have won Olympic or World Championship medals.[2][3]

Career

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Prior to becoming a coach, Canova used to be an active athlete, competing in various disciplines[1], but realized he did not have the talent to become a professional athlete.[4]

In 1969, Canova became Italy's youngest national coach. He started working for the Italian Athletics Federation in 1971, where, until 1973, he worked as an assistant coach in the national team for 400 m and 4 × 400m relay events.[5] During this time he was involved in the training of 800 m runner Marcello Fiasconaro, the first to run under 1:44 for the distance.[5][6] From 1975 to 1985, Canova was the national coach of multi-events.[4][7] During this period, Canova worked at the Fiat/Iveco Club, where sprinter Pietro Paolo Mennea trained.

In 1987, Canova began training Italian middle and long distance athletes. Here he trained, among others, Maria Curatolo and Ornella Ferrara.[4][8] During this time, he worked with Luciano Gigliotti, who was responsible for the male middle and long distance athletes.[4][9] In 1996, in addition to coaching Italian runners, Canova also began training Kenyan athletes in Italy. He justified this by saying that at that time the level of Italian runners was falling because there weren't enough new athletes coming up.[4] In 1998 he traveled to Kenya for the first time.[10]

Beginning in 2003, Canova became the national coach of the Qatari national athletics team.[11][12][13] In 2004, one of Canova's athletes, Stephen Cherono, changed his citizenship from Kenyan to Qatari.[citation needed] This position enabled him to train more intensively with his athletes, who were of Qatari nationality but most of whom came from Kenya. He relocated to Iten, located at approximately 2400 m, for most of the year because he considered the training conditions there to be most suitable.[14] Due to disagreements with the association, he gave up this activity in 2011[15], which the year after the 2010 Asian Games, when he resigned and returned to Italy.[citation needed] After Canova rejected an offer from the Chinese Athletics Association in 2011[16], he trained many athletes from various nations, including the German athletes Arne Gabius[17] and Anna and Lisa Hahner.[18][19]

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, one of Canova's athletes won a silver medal (Abel Kirui in the marathon), and two of Canova's athletes won bronze medals (Wilson Kipsang in the marathon and Thomas Longosiwa in the 5000 m).[citation needed]

In September 2013, an agreement was reached with the Chinese Athletics Association, where Canova was appointed as the national head coach for middle- and long-distances.[16][20] Canova agreed to work with the association until the 2016 Olympic Games. However, he did not manage to bring about the desired turnaround for the Chinese runners. He attributed this to China's poorly organized and overly regional system.[21] At the beginning of November 2015, he resigned from this position, in spite of having a contract until the end of 2016.

At the beginning of 2016, Canova returned to Kenya to create a new running group.[citation needed]

European record holder Julien Wanders has been trained by Canova since 2020.[22]

Coaching philosophy

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Canova's training system is based on increasing race-specific endurance.[23] His fundamental period begins with high volume and low-intensity running along with uphill sprints and technical exercises. During the special period, training sessions move toward speeds that are closer to the athlete's goal race pace but still relatively far away. In the final specific period, all sessions focus on speeds only slightly slower and faster than race pace but with a goal of performing more and more work in each session. Throughout the training cycle, more and more recovery sessions are included as hard sessions become longer and more fatiguing. Because of this, Canova has very rarely used weekly or bi-weekly training cycles in favor of adapting to the effect of each individual session.

Canova has lectured for World Athletics (formerly IAAF), speaking about training methodology.

Criticism

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Canova is often confronted with criticism that his athletes are doped.[1][4][24] These claims are often attributed to doping bans for individual athletes who were trained by him[25][26][27], along with reports of widespread doping in relation to running in Kenya.[28][29] A report on doping in Kenya published in 2012 by the German sports journalists Hajo Seppelt and Robert Kempe[30] commented that Canova was ridiculous[31], and he then demanded weekly tests for his best athletes to show that they were clean be. In contrast to the statements from the report, Canova also wrote that no fewer than ten doping tests were carried out on his athletes every week[1][31] and the statements from the report were “bullshit”.[31]

Canova also believes that a doping agent such as erythropoietin (EPO) would not work on his top athletes because pure aerobic training could increase the capacity of blood in their cardiovascular system to such an extent that EPO would no longer help would.[1][32] If this were not the case, EPO could have an effect, but this would not be the case in its athletes.[1][4] Canova attributes this to the fact that these athletes spend their entire lives at high altitudes. However, he admits that EPO can also have an effect on well-trained people who do not always live at high altitudes, although not as strongly.[33]

Canova sees the reason for the success of his athletes in their training and in their talent and motivation.[1][32] He maintains that all the athletes he knows and trains are clean.[1][34] He attributes the fact that the Europeans and Americans fall in level compared to the East African runners to the different approaches to training.[13] Non-African athletes would not train intensively enough.[35]

Personal life

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Canova spends a large part of the year in Iten.[17]

Canova was married to Daniela Gregorutti, who was a middle-distance runner and was trained by him.[7] Gregorutti died in February 2021.[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Athleticsillustrated (2012-05-06). "Renato Canova - Interview - London Olympic Games". Athletics Illustrated. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  2. ^ "Renato Canova's "Special Block" Explained -". 2019-08-22. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  3. ^ "Coach Renato Canova training methodology". Running Science. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g P. J. Christman (2011-06-06). "Renato Canova Speaks". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  5. ^ a b "Peter Snell Interview and his thoughts on Lydiard training". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  6. ^ "renato canova 800" (in German). Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  7. ^ a b "Does Renato Canova train non-africans or average-ish elites?". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  8. ^ "ORNELLA, LA BELLA FATICA - la Repubblica.it" (in Italian). 5 August 1995. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  9. ^ "Great canova article". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  10. ^ "Renato Canova, profile part 1 - training Shaheen, Qatar and intro to Iten". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  11. ^ "In Kenya, Running With Chinese Characteristics". 2014-05-23. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  12. ^ Chris Turner and David Macharia (15 March 2005). "Qatar ready to mix it with Ethiopia and Kenya – World Cross Country". worldathletics.org. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  13. ^ a b "Interview with Renato Canova - www.mensracing.com". 2009-07-15. Archived from the original on 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  14. ^ "The story behind Shaheen's success | NEWS | World Athletics". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  15. ^ "Renato Canova No Longer Coaching In Qatar". PodiumRunner. 2011-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  16. ^ a b Athleticsillustrated (2015-01-09). "Renato Canova's Move to China". Athletics Illustrated. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  17. ^ a b "Training 2013". Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  18. ^ "Hahners haben mit Canova neuen Trainer mit viel Erfahrung". 21 May 2013. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  19. ^ "Roberto Canova neuer Trainer der Hahner-Twins" (in German). Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  20. ^ "Renato Canova named head distance coach for Chinese Athletics Federation - Flotrack". 2014-10-06. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2022-04-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |archiv-bot= ignored (help)
  21. ^ "Renato Canova Q&A, Part I: Why the Kenyans Struggled in Rio, Learn The Name Of The 2020 Olympic 5000 Champ, and Why Isn't China Better at Running?". 2016-12-12. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  22. ^ Jürg Wirz, Iten (December 2020), "Der «weisse Kenyaner» Julien Wanders arbeitet mit einem neuen Coach | NZZ", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, retrieved 2022-04-16
  23. ^ Canova 101 (2012-08-16. [1]. Running Times. Retrieved 2015-07-27
  24. ^ "RENATO CANOVA INTERVIEW- '. I can put my hands on fire' to prove these althletes are clean". Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  25. ^ "Renato Canova, One of the Top Distance Coaches in the World, Writes About Rita Jeptoo and Doping in Kenya". 2014-11-02. Retrieved 2022-04-17.[permanent dead link‍]
  26. ^ "Wilson Kipsang training program & insight". Running Science. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  27. ^ "Vier Jahre Dopingsperre für Ex-Weltrekordler Wilson Kipsang" (in German). 3 July 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  28. ^ deutschlandfunk.de (9 July 2016). "Doping - Neue Dopingvorwürfe gegen Kenia" (in German). Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  29. ^ "Hajo Seppelt:Kurzberichte zum Thema Doping". vimeo.com (in German). Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  30. ^ Hajo Seppelt (2016-03-09). "Doping in Kenia: Kein Wunder". Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  31. ^ a b c "KENYA and DOPING". Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  32. ^ a b "Renato Canova on Blood Doping". message from mzungo. 2011-04-02. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  33. ^ "Canova was right! EPO does not work on trained athletes". Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  34. ^ "According do Mr Canova, Kenyan top athletes avoid any supplements - SO WHAT ARE THEY EATING, MR CANOVA?". Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  35. ^ Ela Wildner (2020-08-28). "RUNNER'S WORLD Podcast: Folge 42: Top-Marathon-Trainer Renato Canova" (in German). Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  36. ^ Pubblicato da Fausto Bio Correndo. "L'Atletica Italiana perde una campionessa degli anni '70. E' mancata Daniela Gregorutti, moglie di Renato Canova". Retrieved 2022-04-16.
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