Edinburgh, Scotland&nbsp; In a remarkable triumph over adversity and the spirited endeavours of defending champion Zersenay Tadese, Kenenisa Bekele cleared a series of obstacles to win a record sixth Senior Men’s classic distance title - and US$30,000 - at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, at Holyrood Park, today.
Bekele overcame, in turn, a missed flight, overnight stomach troubles, a dislodged shoe early in the 12km race, and Tadese’s determined mid-race surges, to regain the crown he had won in five successive years from 2002 to 2006. Today’s victory takes his record number of individual World Cross Country titles to 12 (6 Long Course, 5 five Short Course, 1 Junior).
After increasing his total number of World Cross Country gold medals to 16 (including 4 team golds) and his record total count to 27 (16 gold, 9 silver, 2 bronze), Bekele acknowledged that his six classic victories might be the statistic that stands above all the others. Until today, the 25-year-old Bekele had shared a record five classic distance triumphs with Kenyans John Ngugi and Paul Tergat.
Having failed to finish in Mombasa last year, suffering stomach problems in the heat and humidity, Bekele fought back from the troubles thrown at him here to pull clear in the eleventh kilometre. In the end, it proved a comfortable victory over runner-up Leonard Patrick Komon, from Kenya, and Tadese, whose valiant title defence was rewarded with the bronze medal.
“As far as the sixth Long Course win is concerned, I tried to accomplish it last year but, because of the weather, I was not able to do it,” Bekele said. “This has a very high honour in my life. I have won the double five times but I think this compares to that. However, I leave the judging to those of you in the media.” 
It was in the third kilometre that Bekele’s shoe was caught from behind, and worked loose, as the field bunched taking a bend. From his place near the front, he dropped way down the field as he stopped to secure it. “My shoe did not fall completely off but I had to stop to undo it and put it back on, so it was as if it fell off because of the effort needed to put it back on,” he said It was the first time, he added, such a misfortune had befallen him.
Having secured his shoe, Bekele worked his way back up the field and, before long, was in the leading group. When Tadese picked up the pace in the seventh kilometre, Bekele was well placed to respond.&nbsp; Dictating from the front, Tadese threw in several bursts, by the end of which he and Bekele had opened a small gap on the last challenging Kenyans, Komon and Joseph Ebuya.
A brief relaxation of pace allowed Komon and Ebuya to close up but, with four kilometres to run, the front four were well clear. With Tadese at the head, and the Kenyan pair side-by-side behind him, Bekele sat at the back before seizing his moment. Of his recovery from his near shoe disaster, he said: “It was near the beginning and I knew it would make the competition difficult because it is not easy to catch up after losing your shoe.
“I knew it would make the rest of the race tough. After the shoe came off I began to think a great deal about what I had to overcome and I had to focus a great deal on my race. If I had tried immediately to catch up it may have affected the rest of my race but instead I controlled my pace.”
Bekele had arrived later than planned in Edinburgh the day before the race. He missed his flight connection at London Heathrow after a delay to his original Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa left him with only 30 minutes to connect in London. His delay was unrelated to the widely-publicised teething problems at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5.
Explaining how stomach trouble almost cost him dearly again, as it had last year, Bekele said: “The day before yesterday, as I was flying in from Ethiopia, there was a delay and I spent the night in London and arrived here yesterday about midday. I had eaten breakfast there before I left and, after it, I didn’t feel well. I then had lunch and dinner here and at night I didn’t feel well. I had to get up three or four times in the night to go to the bathroom and I wasn’t feeling good.”
Tadese said that he was happy with his run – “a bronze medal for my country is still important to me” – while Komon made a big impression in his first year out of the junior ranks. Aged 20, he led Kenya to a third successive team triumph (39 points) with Ethiopia second (105) and Qatar third (144).
David Powell for the IAAF

- Edinburgh, Scotland&nbsp;– In a remarkable triumph over adversity and the spirited endeavours of defending champion Zersenay Tadese, Kenenisa Bekele cleared a series of obstacles to win a record sixth Senior Men’s classic distance title - and US$30,000 - at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, at Holyrood Park, today.

No ‘sole’ can stop Bekele – Edinburgh 2008

&nbsp; In a remarkable triumph over adversity and the spirited endeavours of defending champion Zersenay Tadese, Kenenisa Bekele cleared a series of obstacles to win a record sixth Senior Men&rsquo;s classic distance title - and US$30,000 - at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, at Holyrood Park, today.Bekele overcame, in turn, a missed flight, overnight stomach troubles, a dislodged shoe early in the 12km race, and Tadese&rsquo;s determined mid-race surges, to regain the crown he had won in five successive years from 2002 to 2006. Today&rsquo;s victory takes his record number of individual World Cross Country titles to 12 (6 Long Course, 5 five Short Course, 1 Junior).After increasing his total number of World Cross Country gold medals to 16 (including 4 team golds) and his record total count to 27 (16 gold, 9 silver, 2 bronze), Bekele acknowledged that his six classic victories might be the statistic that stands above all the others. Until today, the 25-year-old Bekele had shared a record five classic distance triumphs with Kenyans John Ngugi and Paul Tergat.Having failed to finish in Mombasa last year, suffering stomach problems in the heat and humidity, Bekele fought back from the troubles thrown at him here to pull clear in the eleventh kilometre. In the end, it proved a comfortable victory over runner-up Leonard Patrick Komon, from Kenya, and Tadese, whose valiant title defence was rewarded with the bronze medal.&ldquo;As far as the sixth Long Course win is concerned, I tried to accomplish it last year but, because of the weather, I was not able to do it,&rdquo; Bekele said. &ldquo;This has a very high honour in my life. I have won the double five times but I think this compares to that. However, I leave the judging to those of you in the media.&rdquo; It was in the third kilometre that Bekele&rsquo;s shoe was caught from behind, and worked loose, as the field bunched taking a bend. From his place near the front, he dropped way down the field as he stopped to secure it. &ldquo;My shoe did not fall completely off but I had to stop to undo it and put it back on, so it was as if it fell off because of the effort needed to put it back on,&rdquo; he said It was the first time, he added, such a misfortune had befallen him.Having secured his shoe, Bekele worked his way back up the field and, before long, was in the leading group. When Tadese picked up the pace in the seventh kilometre, Bekele was well placed to respond.&nbsp; Dictating from the front, Tadese threw in several bursts, by the end of which he and Bekele had opened a small gap on the last challenging Kenyans, Komon and Joseph Ebuya.A brief relaxation of pace allowed Komon and Ebuya to close up but, with four kilometres to run, the front four were well clear. With Tadese at the head, and the Kenyan pair side-by-side behind him, Bekele sat at the back before seizing his moment. Of his recovery from his near shoe disaster, he said: &ldquo;It was near the beginning and I knew it would make the competition difficult because it is not easy to catch up after losing your shoe.&ldquo;I knew it would make the rest of the race tough. After the shoe came off I began to think a great deal about what I had to overcome and I had to focus a great deal on my race. If I had tried immediately to catch up it may have affected the rest of my race but instead I controlled my pace.&rdquo;Bekele had arrived later than planned in Edinburgh the day before the race. He missed his flight connection at London Heathrow after a delay to his original Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa left him with only 30 minutes to connect in London. His delay was unrelated to the widely-publicised teething problems at Heathrow&rsquo;s new Terminal 5.Explaining how stomach trouble almost cost him dearly again, as it had last year, Bekele said: &ldquo;The day before yesterday, as I was flying in from Ethiopia, there was a delay and I spent the night in London and arrived here yesterday about midday. I had eaten breakfast there before I left and, after it, I didn&rsquo;t feel well. I then had lunch and dinner here and at night I didn&rsquo;t feel well. I had to get up three or four times in the night to go to the bathroom and I wasn&rsquo;t feeling good.&rdquo;Tadese said that he was happy with his run &ndash; &ldquo;a bronze medal for my country is still important to me&rdquo; &ndash; while Komon made a big impression in his first year out of the junior ranks. Aged 20, he led Kenya to a third successive team triumph (39 points) with Ethiopia second (105) and Qatar third (144).David Powell for the IAAF

Scotland&nbsp;- In a remarkable triumph over adversity and the spirited endeavours of defending champion Zersenay Tadese, Kenenisa Bekele cleared a series of obstacles to win a record sixth Senior Men’s classic distance title - and US$30,000 - at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, at Holyrood Park, today.

Senior Men's Race Report - Edinburgh 2008

Tirunesh Dibaba completed part three of what was not only a great day for Ethiopia but a great day for the Dibaba family this afternoon as she reclaimed her World Cross Country crown, which comes with a US$30,000 prize, in thrilling style.
Dibaba’s victory over the 8km race means she joins USA’s Lynn Jennings and her cousin, Derartu Tulu, as a winner of three long course titles following her previous victories in 2005 and 2006. With her short course win in 2005 and the junior title in 2004, she now joins Grete Waitz of Norway with five individual golds from these championships, and Worknesh Kidane as a winner of eight individual medals.
Together with all her team titles, Dibaba has now won 14 World Cross Country golds altogether, more than any other athlete. And she’s still only 22.
Taking inspiration from her younger sister Genzebe, the 17-year-old who won the junior race just an hour earlier, Dibaba shrugged off any doubts about her fitness in the final 400m of a gruelling race to leap from fourth to first on the craggy hillside of Haggis Knowe, before unleashing her trademark finishing kick that brought her home over the soggy mud in 25:10, five seconds ahead of her teammate Mestawet Tufa.
Linet Masai, the 2007 junior champion from Kenya, claimed the bronze in 25:18 but with Ethiopians in sixth (Gelete Burka) and ninth (Meselech Melkamu), it was the women in green and yellow who claimed the senior women’s team title for the seventh consecutive time and the ninth time in the last 10 years. Kenya were in silver (22pts) and Australia (84pts) secured team bronze.
For Dibaba it was not only the team victory which mattered, however, not even the personal triumph, but her part in a family affair that goes back to 1995 when Tulu won the first of her World Cross crowns.
“I’m aware that my aunt has won this race three times so I am very happy to have done the same thing,” said a smiling, if mud-splattered, Dibaba afterwards. “And my younger sister was first earlier today so it was partly to match her that I dug in and put everything I had into the win.”
Indeed, the manner of Dibaba’s victory was little short of remarkable. With less than half a lap to go she looked, not only to have lost the race, but to be out of the medals, her much publicised stomach problems seemingly afflicting her again.
But summoning some unknown reserves of strength she clawed past Masai and pulled herself back into touch with Tufa and Gelete Burka before striking for gold.
“I felt a stitch in the middle of the race and that’s when I fell back,” she admitted afterwards. “But I recovered from that and was able to move to the front.”
It was the first time in the entire race that she had been so prominent as in the early stages she was content to stalk the leaders. Surprisingly, the first to show were from the host nation as Liz and Hayley Yelling moved swiftly to the front in the first lap, apparently keen to take what little chance they had to fly the flag for Britain.
Amy Hastings of the USA was also in evidence early on but large clutches of Kenyans and Ethiopians were never far away. Burka, in a grey hat and long black sleaves, looked comfortable just behind the leaders, as did Kenya’s Priscah Cherono (formerly Jeleting), the 2006 silver medallist.
By the end of the second lap it was these two plus Tufa who led a long line of athletes past the rain-drenched crowd as the Britons and Americans began to struggle. But it was on the next circuit, the third, and the first to include the course’s one testing incline that the race really began.
Burka, a winner of the Edinburgh IAAF Permit race on this course for the last years, moved to the front. “On Sunday, I will use the experience I have on this course,” she said a few days ago. And that’s what she appeared to be doing as she led a group of nine or 10 plus Australia’s Benita Johnson, a former champion, who was hanging on the back.
It was at this stage that Masai first began to show and she, Tufa and Burka moved away at the end of the penultimate lap with Dibaba, clearly visible in her long white sleeves, chasing hard about five metres behind.
From then on it was all about these four as they battled out a stirring last lap in which the medals were in doubt until the very last bend of the twisting course. 
First Burka made her move, pulling Tufa with her as Masai dropped back allowing Dibaba to catch up. These two appeared be set for a battle for bronze as Burka stretched her lead, opening a 20 metre gap on Tufa that looked decisive.
But Tufa wasn’t finished and as the runners negotiated the penultimate tight bend in front of the grandstand she began to make up the ground. Behind her, Dibaba was dragging Masai back into the reckoning and by the time they hit the base of the hill for the last time there were only 10 metres separating the four.
Burka had clearly pushed too hard too early as she blew up on the foothills of the Haggis Knowe, destined to finish sixth, 25 seconds behind Dibaba. In contrast, Dibaba was suddenly revived and the World 10,000m champion skipped past her teammate, drove beyond Tufa, crested the top of the hill and unleashed her finishing spurt.
“Tirunesh has better finishing speed than me, but I am happy with my second place,” said the resigned Tufa afterwards.
“Our victory brings us great joy today,” said Dibaba. “We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Cross country is very important to us. We wanted to bring a strong team and do very well here.”
She was talking about her country. But it equally applies to the family clan.
Matthew Brown for the IAAF
&nbsp;

Tirunesh Dibaba completed part three of what was not only a great day for Ethiopia but a great day for the Dibaba family this afternoon as she reclaimed her World Cross Country crown, which comes with a US$30,000 prize, in thrilling style.

Dibaba takes her fifth gold - Edinburgh 2008

"In six weeks time I'd have been a contender to win," declared former champion Benita Johnson after leading the Australian women to the team bronze medals behind the all-powerful Ethiopians (18 points) and Kenyans (22) in the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships at Holyrood Park, Edinburgh.
The Aussies' total of 84 points snatched a podium place from a desperately disappointed USA by just&nbsp; three points but was well clear of the next African country Morocco in fifth position with 100 and&nbsp; the first Europeans, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who were sixth with 116.
"We stacked really well and had a really good race," said a delighted Benita, who has never accepted that the African runners are unbeatable in this discipline.
Lisa Weightman (20), Mellisa Rollison (26) and Anna Thompson (27) gave close support to Johnson, who won the title in Brussels in 2004 and was first non-African this time in 11th place:&nbsp; "I'm thrilled as I was only fifth in our trial - I've had a knee injury - now I can concentrate on my preparations for Beijing."
Interestingly, considering that she recently withdrew from the Flora London Marathon in two weeks time because she felt she had lost too much training, Johnson has not ruled out running the marathon in the Olympics: "It'll be either the 10,000 metres or the marathon," said the 28-year-old Oceania record-holder for both events.
Johnson, who lives in Melbourne and is coached by Nic Bideau, refused to accept that the team's medal success had been a surprise: "All the girls have been running really well."
But she pay tribute to Bideau's wife, Irish legend Sonia O'Sullivan, who won both long and the now-discontinued short course races in Marrakech in 1998 and is now Australian team manager.
"Sonia's a fantastic inspiration for any team and most countries would give their eye teeth for that."
Johnson's sometime training companion and fellow Australian Craig Mottram, whose mother is a Scot and who was hoping to produce something special for his many Scottish fans, was unable to take inspiration from her run and was so disappointed with his 31st place in the men's race that he walked past waiting reporters at the finish without pausing to speak.
Mottram's team were no more successful and could finish no higher than ninth, with 400 points, which was still better than the host nation could manage, the British men finishing 11th with 444 points.
It was left to the Americans to put up the best display by the non-African teams, finishing seventh with 301 points.
The reason for the relatively bright American displays, according to leading UK distance coach Bud Baldaro, is down to funding: "They're getting groups together all over the place."
And Baldaro had words of encouragement for the British women: "The juniors (who were fourth without the injured Steph Twell) did well and so did the seniors, considering they were without Paula (Radcliffe), Kate Reed and Jo Pavey, also did well.”
Sandy Sutherland for the IAAF

"In six weeks time I'd have been a contender to win," declared former champion Benita Johnson after leading the Australian women to the team bronze medals behind the all-powerful Ethiopians (18 points) and Kenyans (22) in the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships at Holyrood Park, Edinburgh.

Johnson back on Beijing schedule as Aussies bag team bronze - Edinburgh 2008

Tirunesh Dibaba completed part three of what was not only a great day for Ethiopia but a great day for the Dibaba family this afternoon as she reclaimed her World Cross Country crown in thrilling style.
Dibaba’s victory over the 8km race means she joins USA’s Lynn Jennings and her cousin, Derartu Tulu, as a winner of three long course titles following her previous victories in 2005 and 2006. With her short course win in 2005 and the junior title in 2004, she now joins Grete Waitz of Norway with five individual golds from these championships, and Worknesh Kidane as a winner of eight individual medals.
Together with all her team titles, Dibaba has now won 14 World Cross Country golds altogether, more than any other athlete. And she’s still only 22.
Taking inspiration from her younger sister Genzebe, the 17-year-old who won the junior race just an hour earlier, Dibaba shrugged off any doubts about her fitness in the final 400m of a gruelling race to leap from fourth to first on the craggy hillside of Haggis Knowe, before unleashing her trademark finishing kick that brought her home over the soggy mud in 25:10, five seconds ahead of her teammate Mestawet Tufa.
Linet Masai, the 2007 junior champion from Kenya, claimed the bronze in 25:18 but with Ethiopians in sixth (Gelete Burka) and ninth (Meselech Melkamu), it was the women in green and yellow who claimed the senior women’s team title for the seventh consecutive time and the ninth time in the last 10 years. Kenya were in silver (22pts) and Australia (84pts) secured team bronze.
For Dibaba it was not only the team victory which mattered, however, not even the personal triumph, but her part in a family affair that goes back to 1995 when Tulu won the first of her World Cross crowns.
“I’m aware that my aunt has won this race three times so I am very happy to have done the same thing,” said a smiling, if mud-splattered, Dibaba afterwards. “And my younger sister was first earlier today so it was partly to match her that I dug in and put everything I had into the win.”
Indeed, the manner of Dibaba’s victory was little short of remarkable. With less than half a lap to go she looked, not only to have lost the race, but to be out of the medals, her much publicised stomach problems seemingly afflicting her again.
But summoning some unknown reserves of strength she clawed past Masai and pulled herself back into touch with Tufa and Gelete Burka before striking for gold.
“I felt a stitch in the middle of the race and that’s when I fell back,” she admitted afterwards. “But I recovered from that and was able to move to the front.”
It was the first time in the entire race that she had been so prominent as in the early stages she was content to stalk the leaders. Surprisingly, the first to show were from the host nation as Liz and Hayley Yelling moved swiftly to the front in the first lap, apparently keen to take what little chance they had to fly the flag for Britain.
Amy Hastings of the USA was also in evidence early on but large clutches of Kenyans and Ethiopians were never far away. Burka, in a grey hat and long black sleaves, looked comfortable just behind the leaders, as did Kenya’s Priscah Cherono (formerly Jeleting), the 2006 silver medallist.
By the end of the second lap it was these two plus Tufa who led a long line of athletes past the rain-drenched crowd as the Britons and Americans began to struggle. But it was on the next circuit, the third, and the first to include the course’s one testing incline that the race really began.
Burka, a winner of the Edinburgh IAAF Permit race on this course for the last years, moved to the front. “On Sunday, I will use the experience I have on this course,” she said a few days ago. And that’s what she appeared to be doing as she led a group of nine or 10 plus Australia’s Benita Johnson, a former champion, who was hanging on the back.
It was at this stage that Masai first began to show and she, Tufa and Burka moved away at the end of the penultimate lap with Dibaba, clearly visible in her long white sleeves, chasing hard about five metres behind.
From then on it was all about these four as they battled out a stirring last lap in which the medals were in doubt until the very last bend of the twisting course. 
First Burka made her move, pulling Tufa with her as Masai dropped back allowing Dibaba to catch up. These two appeared be set for a battle for bronze as Burka stretched her lead, opening a 20 metre gap on Tufa that looked decisive.
But Tufa wasn’t finished and as the runners negotiated the penultimate tight bend in front of the grandstand she began to make up the ground. Behind her, Dibaba was dragging Masai back into the reckoning and by the time they hit the base of the hill for the last time there were only 10 metres separating the four.
Burka had clearly pushed too hard too early as she blew up on the foothills of the Haggis Knowe, destined to finish sixth, 25 seconds behind Dibaba. In contrast, Dibaba was suddenly revived and the World 10,000m champion skipped past her teammate, drove beyond Tufa, crested the top of the hill and unleashed her finishing spurt.
“Tirunesh has better finishing speed than me, but I am happy with my second place,” said the resigned Tufa afterwards.
“Our victory brings us great joy today,” said Dibaba. “We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Cross country is very important to us. We wanted to bring a strong team and do very well here.”
She was talking about her country. But it equally applies to the family clan.
Matthew Brown for the IAAF

- Tirunesh Dibaba completed part three of what was not only a great day for Ethiopia but a great day for the Dibaba family this afternoon as she reclaimed her World Cross Country crown in thrilling style.

Senior Women’s Race Report - Edinburgh 2008

After three years in Kenyan hands, Ethiopia regained the Junior Men’s individual title over 8 kilometres today as Ibrahim Jeilan used his proven track speed to see off his challengers in the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships at Holyrood Park. Jeilan, the World Junior 10,000m champion, thus made up for his failure to finish in the corresponding race in Mombasa last year and for his fifth place in Fukuoka two years ago.
The 18-year-old Jeilan was thrilled with his victory not only for himself and his country but also for the name of his club, Muger Cement Sports Club.” He had seen Genzebe Dibaba win the Junior Women’s title 30 minutes earlier and taken the boost of her victory with him into his race.
“The reason that it was engraved in my head was the fact that, from our club, it was her, myself and Kenenisa (Bekele) who qualified for these World Cross Country Championships, so I had a dream that the three of us would win gold for our club and for our country,” Jeilan said. “That was what I was aiming for.” So it was now up to Bekele, winner of 10 senior individual World Cross Country titles, to complete Jeilan’s desired hat-trick later in the afternoon. Some 90 minutes later, Bekele duly obliged, regaining his title.
Jeilan, after his third consecutive domestic title, had believed that he was ready to become World Junior Cross Country champion. Tactically, he was faultless, content to let Benjamin Kiplagat, from Uganda, and Mathew Kipkoech Kisorio, from Kenya, make most of the running. Kiplagat, especially, took it on from the front and, for this, he deserved better than the fourth place that was waiting for him at the finish after Ayele Abshero, Jeilan’s compatriot, took the silver medal and Lucas Kimeli Rotich, from Kenya, the bronze.
It was Kiplagat, seeking to become Uganda’s first winner of the title and easily picked out for his height and yellow singlet, who forced the pace through halfway, with Kisorio in close attendance just behind. Kisorio is the son of the late Some Muge, who was Kenya’s first medallist in these championships, with senior bronze at Gateshead, England, in 1983.
By the third of the four laps, the lead group was down to 10 athletes, with Jeilan and Abshero running smart, letting the likes of Kiplagat, Kisorio, and Rotich shield them from the wind on the rain-soaked course.&nbsp; Abshero occasionally forced his way in between the front runners, without ever taking a distinct lead and, entering the final lap, Kiplagat still looked strong at the front. The lead group was now down to six athletes.
In the seventh kilometre, another of the Kenyans, Titus Kipjumba Mbishei, took on the running and still six athletes were in contention. Then the picture changed suddenly and dramatically up the side of the steep Haggis Knowe (hill). Abshero took it on, stretching the front group and, as they came down the other side, Jeilan, Abshero and Rotich were in the medal positions.
Jeilan was the smoothest of the three on the awkward downhill and he pulled comfortably away along the flat run for home, clocking 22:38. Abshero followed in 22:40 and Rotich took third in 22:42.
“I am very happy,” Jeilan added. “I prepared extremely hard for this and Allah has made my dream come true. From when I first started running, I wanted to succeed in cross country and the track and now I have achieved my goals. My team-mate (Abshero) helped me a great deal. It was his move at the front that allowed me to eventually take the lead and use my fast finish. I think we worked together very well.”
Asked whether he was disappointed not to have taken the gold, Abshero said: “Every time you enter a competition, you enter hoping to win, so I was hoping to win. But I am very happy with this result.” By contrast, Rotich said: “I was disappointed, it was a tough race. The last two laps didn’t feel so good. I am not pleased at all.”
At least Rotich had the consolation of leading Kenya to team gold medals. Rotich, Mbishei, Kisorio and Peter Kimeli Some combined to score 21 points and give Kenya their 10th successive Junior Men’s team title and their 20th in 21 years. Ethiopia (28pts) took team silver and Uganda (37) bronze. Japan were the best of the non-African nations (4th). 
David Powell for the IAAF

After three years in Kenyan hands, Ethiopia regained the Junior Men’s individual title over 8 kilometres today as Ibrahim Jeilan used his proven track speed to see off his challengers in the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships at Holyrood Park. Jeilan, the World Junior 10,000m champion, thus made up for his failure to finish in the corresponding race in Mombasa last year and for his fifth place in Fukuoka two years ago.

Junior Men's Race Report - Edinburgh 2008

There was a familiar name on the vest and a familiar smile on the face of Genzebe Dibaba as she bounced down the final, muddy slope of the three-lap course at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park this afternoon and sped across the line to become the 2007 World Junior Cross Country champion emulating her older sister Tirunesh who won the title in 2003.
“I expected to get a medal but I didn’t expect to win,” said the delighted 17-year-old after adding a fifth World Cross gold medal to the Dibaba family’s growing collection.
“My sister gave me good advice before the race,” she said of Tirunesh, who just one hour later regained the senior title she’d won in 2005 and 2006.
Indeed, her much-honoured sister would have been rightly proud of the way Genzebe claimed victory. After sitting just behind the leaders for much of the 6km race, Dibaba pounced to the front only in the final stages of the last lap, attacking Kenya’s Irene Cheptai up the steep climb of Haggis Knowe, the round, rocky hillock that forms part of this picturesque course about 400m from the finish.
Cheptai, who had attempted to break away on the final lap, chased hard but had no answer to the Ethiopian’s surge as Dibaba sprinted past the grandstand and crossed the line in 19:59 with Cheptai second just five seconds slower.
Dibaba’s teammate Emebt Etea made up for her distastrous experience in Mombasa 12 months ago when she was stretchered from the course suffering from heat exhaustion. The 18-year-old grabbed the bronze two seconds behind Cheptai.
With Emebet Bacha in fifth place and Betelhem Moges in seventh, Ethiopia regained the team title from Kenya for the first time since 2004. It was quite some redemption after 2007 when a clutch of Ethiopians miss calculated the laps and ended up “only” with the bronze medal.
For Dibaba, who finished fifth last year, it was less a redemption than the start of a new chapter in a highly successful family saga as she followed Tirunesh and Ejagayou, the eldest of the three, in the ranks of the world’s best.
“I have looked up to my sisters for so so long. I am very happy to be like them,” said Dibaba.
Indeed, the familiarity was uncanny as Genzebe executed her victory in a style that’s become all to familiar to Tirunesh’s rivals over recent years. Always in touch but never in front, Genzebe followed a large pack that carefully negotiated its way round the muddy track through the first, shorter lap of the course.
While it was no surprise to see a mass of Kenyans and Ethiopians at the front it was Australia’s Tamara Carvolth who led in the early stages with Kenya’s Mercy Kosgei, last year’s silver medallist and one of the favourites, just on her shoulder.
But it wasn’t to be Kosgei’s day. When five Kenyans pushed on in front through the second lap, their red and black vests spread across the narrow track, Kosgei wasn’t among them. Perhaps she, like many others, was having trouble negotiating the tight, slippy corners of the course.
Three athletes fell as they approached the hill for the first time and there were other spillages later. At the end of the second lap Kosgei was well off the pace as six Kenyans and six Ethiopians led three Japanese into the final circuit.
It was only with half a lap to go that the Ethiopians pushed to the fore with Etea leading the charge and Dibaba, as ever, just off the pace.
Cheptai made her move as they came to the hill for the last time and at first it looked decisive. But Genzebe had a family trademark, the Dibaba finish, up her sleave.
She leapt past her Kenyan rival on the steepest part of the slope and in a flash was away and gone, around the hill and down past the Ethiopian flags.
“After the first two laps were over, it was only on the third lap I realised I could win,” said Dibaba. “The weather was good today.”
Etea also had good reason to be pleased with the conditions. “Mombasa was very tough last year, it was very hot and I was very ill,” she said. “It took me about three months to recover.
“Today it was comfortable and I am very happy to bring Ethiopia the gold.”
Matthew Brown for the IAAF

- There was a familiar name on the vest and a familiar smile on the face of Genzebe Dibaba as she bounced down the final, muddy slope of the three-lap course at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park this afternoon and sped across the line to become the 2007 World Junior Cross Country champion emulating her older sister Tirunesh who won the title in 2003.

Junior Women's Race Report - Edinburgh 2008

The heat of Mombasa is now but a memory, a nightmare of course, in the history of Ethiopian distance running.&nbsp; 
In cold, occasionally rainy and blustery conditions in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park at this afternoon’s 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships it was not just a climatic differences between the previous and current venues of these championships which were noticeable but competitive ones too.
In Kenya last year the women’s senior team title had been the only success for the green vested runners from the Ethiopian highlands otherwise they had been routed by their Kenyan hosts, Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese and the Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat.
Had it just been the heat of the Indian Ocean coastal city which had defied Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and their compatriots?
Whatever the reason Ethiopian flags were enthusiastically unfurled over the course in Holyrood Park today as a large expat community among an estimated overall crowd of over 20,000 spectators, celebrated their country's first ever sweep of the four indivdual race titles in the slippery muddy conditions of the heavily rain and wind swept grass circuit.
The last time such a feat had been achieved was 1994 when Kenya’s William Sigei (Men), Hellen Chepngeno (Women), Philip Mosima (Jnr men) and Sally Barsosio (Jnr Women) occupied all the top steps of the World Cross Country podium.
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, Ibrahim Jeilan and Genzebe Dibaba will now be lauded in Addis Ababa on their return home.
Kenya will be relieved to have pulled together team victories ahead of their foes in the senior and junior men’s race but this was redemption day time for Ethiopia’s Mombasa defeated who surprise, surprise,&nbsp;secured the other two team titles.
One could almost describe the day as ‘normal service resumed’ had the Ethiopian performance not in itself been unique in the annals of their all ready illustrious history at the World Cross Country Championships.&nbsp; .
Chris Turner for the IAAF 
Click here for <A class="" href="http://www.iaaf.org/WXC08/news/kind=108/index.html" mce_href="http://www.iaaf.org/WXC08/news/kind=108/index.html">RACE REPORTS</A>
 .

- The heat of Mombasa is now but a memory, a nightmare of course, in the history of Ethiopian distance running.&nbsp;

Ethiopia romp home to their first ever sweep of all four individual golds – Edinburgh 2008

READ ON for English and French language versions of this press release
- La traduction française suit le texte anglais&nbsp;&nbsp;
Edinburgh, Scotland - Last night, IAAF President Lamine Diack welcomed over 200 guests to The Hub, Edinburgh, for the IAAF Dinner of the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
The Honourable George Grubb, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, was the chief guest of the IAAF at a venue, a former Gothic Church, which is at the centre of the annual Edinburgh Festival each year. 
In recognition of the occasion of the World Championships returning to Scotland, exactly 30 years exactly since Glasgow held them last, President Diack presented an IAAF Plaque to the Lord Provost, who reciprocated by giving a solid silver Quaiche (Scottish Drinking Bowl) to the President.
As has become traditional at the IAAF Dinner on the eve of World Athletics Series events, great athletes from the host country were also honoured.
On this occasion the achievements of two Scottish long distance runners, both of whom became World champions during their distinguished careers, were acknowledged.
Liz McColgan, the 1991 World 10,000m champion, was the first to receive an IAAF plaque. McColgan had a prodigiously successful running career - twice a World Cross Country medallist, World Indoor record breaker at 5000m, 1988 Olympic silver medallist and double Commonwealth champion at 10,000m, and since here retirement she has also been a chair of Scottish Athletics.
Secondly, Ian Stewart, the 1975 World Cross Country champion came to the stage of The Hub to receive his IAAF Plaque. A man whose name and face is better known to the current generation of world class athletes as the director of the IAAF London Super Grand Prix meeting, Stewart’s trophy case is also a full one - 1969 European and 1970 Commonwealth 5000m champion and 1972 Olympic 5000m bronze medallist, 1969 and 1975 European Indoor 3000m winner, among his other career honours.
IAAF
IAAF Broadcasting Dept provided short video presentations of each athlete during their careers, while the evening’s master of ceremonies was Chris Turner of the IAAF Communications Dept. &nbsp;
Edimbourg 2008, patrimoine mondial du cross-country Edimbourg, Ecosse – Lamine Diack président de l’IAAF, a accueilli hier soir plus de 200 invités au Hub, à Edimbourg, lors du dîner de l’IAAF donné dans le cadre des 36èmes Championnats du Monde de Cross-Country de l’IAAF. L’Honorable George Grubb, Lord Provost de la Ville d’Edimbourg était l’invité d’honneur de l’IAAF dans un site, une ancienne cathédrale gothique, qui est chaque année le centre névralgique du Festival d’Edimbourg. A cette occasion, et pour commémorer le retour des Championnats du Monde en Ecosse, trente ans tout juste après la dernière édition à Glasgow, le président Diack a offert une Plaque de l’IAAF au Lord Provost. Celui-ci a alors offert au président une Quaiche (bol typique d’Ecosse) en argent massif. Comme le veut depuis longtemps la tradition lors du dîner offert par l’IAAF à la veille des épreuves de la Série mondiale d’athlétisme, de grands champions du pays organisateur ont également été récompensés. Pour l’occasion, deux spécialistes du demi-fond écossais, tous deux champions du monde lors de leur carrière remarquable, ont été honorés pour leurs exploits. Liz McColgan, championne du monde du 10 000m en 1991, a eu la primeur de recevoir une Plaque de l’IAAF. La championne écossaise a connu une carrière sportive prodigieusement fructueuse. Elle a ainsi terminé à deux reprises sur le podium des championnats du monde de cross-country, battu le record du monde en salle du 5000m, remporté une médaille d’argent olympique en 1977 et décroché deux titres sur 10 000m aux Jeux du Commonwealth. En outre, depuis sa retraite, elle a également présidé la fédération écossaise d’athlétisme. Puis ce fut au tour de Ian Stewart, champion du monde de cross-country en 1975, de monter sur la scène du Hub pour recevoir sa Plaque de l’IAAF. Le nom et le visage de cet homme sont d’ailleurs bien connus de la génération des athlètes mondiaux actuels, puisqu’il dirige la réunion de Londres du Super grand prix de l’IAAF. L’armoire aux trophées de Ian Stewart est également bien garnie : entre autres récompenses, il a accumulé au cours de sa carrière un titre européen en 1969 et une victoire aux Jeux du Commonwealth de 1970 sur 5000m, une médaille de bronze olympique, toujours sur la même distance, en 1972, ainsi que deux titres européens en salle sur 3000m en 1969 et 1975. IAAF Le département Télédiffusion de l’IAAF a montré de brèves présentations vidéo de la carrière de chaque athlète alors que Chris Turner, membre du département de la Communication de l’IAAF, a été le maître de cérémonie d’un soir.
&nbsp;

- Last night, IAAF President Lamine Diack welcomed over 200 guests to The Hub, Edinburgh, for the IAAF Dinner of the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

The Hub of events – Edinburgh 2008

It was a meeting of long distance running generations. Six athletes representing cross country’s competitive past, present and future composed the head table at yesterday’s IAAF Press Conference which formally opened proceedings at this weekend’s 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Click here for <A class="" href="http://www.iaaf.org/WXC08/news/kind=100/newsid=44217.html" mce_href="http://www.iaaf.org/WXC08/news/kind=100/newsid=44217.html">press conference summary</A>
Zersenay Tadese (ERI) and Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH), two East African exponents of world class track, road and country running stood for the present, while two talented British juniors - Emily Pidgeon and David Forrester - a possible future elite.
Representing the older generation yesterday, two of the world’s greatest distance runners of the last couple of decades, Scotland’s Liz McColgan and Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan sat to either side of the two British 18-year-olds.
Both have a host of titles and awards to their names. McColgan’s 1991 World 10,000m championship victory, and O’Sullivan 1995 World 5000m title, the pinnacles of remarkable careers on the track.
Arguably though the zenith of O’Sullivan’s powers were witnessed in 1998 at the World Cross Country Championships in Marrakech, Morocco, when in the opening year of the now defunct short course race, O’Sullivan not only strolled away with that crown but took the long course race gold as well.
Then it had already been four years since the last European winner of the women’s individual title (Albertina Dias of Portugal, 1993), and for O’Sullivan to go to Africa, a tough away-match to use football parlance, in any concept of long distance running challenges, and come away dominant (14 secs in the short race, 3 secs in the long race her margins of victory) was remarkable.
In 1987, the last year in which Scotland was represented as an individual Home Countries team at the World Cross before amalgamation with England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as team GBR &amp; NI, Liz McColgan (then Lynch) brought home one of her two global cross country medals. Silver was her reward in a close contest with France’s Annette Sergent on the race course in Warsaw, Poland.
21-years-ago cross country running was a different world. In terms of the women’s race at the World Cross it was not to be until 1991, the year in which McColgan won her second medal (bronze) that Africa in the guise of Derartu Tulu was to make its way on to the rostrum (silver).
It was a period which represented a changing of a continental guard in terms of dominance of the World Cross Country Championships, and since Kenyan Hellen Chepngeno’s win in 1994, Africa has not looked back. O’Sullivan’s 1998 win, Paula Radcliffe’s 2001 and 2002 crowns, and Benita Johnson’s unexpected romp to victory through Brussels’ muddy parkland in 2004, the only non-African&nbsp;victors in the women’s long race in 14 championships!
At yesterday’s conference both McColgan, and O Sullivan insisted that it was not an irreversible situation. The African athletes are beatable.
"It's not about being afraid of the athletes, it's about not being afraid to train hard," McColgan, former Chair of Scottish Athletics, passionately confirmed.
O'Sullivan, here in a new roll as Australian team coach at these championships, was in agreement. The Australian system instilled a self-belief that meant their athletes were not scared.
Reflecting on the relative success of Australian distance runners in the last decade - Johnson but also Craig Mottram and the recently crowned World Indoor 800m champion Tamsyn Lewis -&nbsp;O’Sullivan commented, "the group training effect is useful. When you're training day in day out, it can make it easier. It's not supposed to be easy but it does help.”
Beatable or not, it is unthinkable that the sport will return to a position where in the 1970s Europeans made up nearly 80% of the competitors at the World Cross Country Championships. Today Europe only accounts for less than 30%.
In their competitive careers and since, McColgan and O’Sullivan have been witnesses to a seismic shift in the balance of power in the sport of cross country running. They have returned this weekend to their cross country roots, the European fibers of which in overall endurance terms are withered but we hope are not beyond nurturing. 
Chris Turner IAAF Editorial Senior Manager&nbsp;
&nbsp;

- It was a meeting of long distance running generations. Six athletes representing cross country’s competitive past, present and future composed the head table at yesterday’s IAAF Press Conference which formally opened proceedings at this weekend’s 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

McColgan and O’Sullivan bear witness to change – Edinburgh 2008

The Start Lists for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Edinburgh, Scotland,&nbsp;are now available.
The Start Lists and Athlete Biographies for each race - Men's Senior, Men's Junior, Women's Senior, and Women's Junior - are available for download in pdf format from the right-hand-side of this page.
Start Lists can also be found on the <A class="" href="http://www.iaaf.org/WXC08/results/eventCode=3889/index.html" mce_href="http://www.iaaf.org/WXC08/results/eventCode=3889/index.html">Timetable/Results</A> section of the Edinburgh 2008 section of the IAAF website.
As usual, the IAAF website will be providing race reports, athlete features, and photographic coverage of all the races on Sunday 30 March.
We hope you enjoy our coverage from Edinburgh.
IAAF 
&nbsp;

The Start Lists for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Edinburgh, Scotland,&nbsp;are now available.

START LISTS & BIOGRAPHIES - Edinburgh 2008 

Edinburgh, ScotlandEthiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, the dethroned 10-time senior men’s World Cross Country champion, will be hoping for a smoother passage towards regaining his crown tomorrow than the journey he endured today into Edinburgh. 
Travelling to Scotland for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships,&nbsp; Bekele missed his flight connection at London Heathrow after a delay to his original Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa left him with only 30 minutes to connect in London. His delay was unrelated to the widely-publicised teething problems at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5.
Bekele – ‘My fitness is good’
Bekele, who was now due to arrive in Edinburgh this afternoon, said that he was unperturbed by the delay. “I have a lot of experience of the course here in Edinburgh, and have won the annual race here on three occasions, so my travel delay does not worry me.
“I was always planning from the beginning to arrive late in Edinburgh, so although this even-later arrival wasn’t planned this way, I’m comfortable arriving the day before the competition. I love the city and the crowd are always very encouraging, so I look forward to running. My fitness is good. I have run this year three times, twice indoors and once cross country, and have won each time.”
The 25-year-old Bekele, who already holds&nbsp; a record 15 World Cross Country gold medals, the record number of individual golds (11, including one junior), and the record total (25, comprising 15 gold, 8 silver, 2 bronze), is seeking a record sixth senior long-course title. Many of his gold medals were taken from the short-course championship, which was discontinued after 2006, and the record for the greatest number of classic long-course triumphs (5) is shared between the Ethiopian and two Kenyans: John Ngugi won five titles between 1986 and 1992 and Paul Tergat five in succession from 1995 to 1999.
Tadese – ‘I am prepared’
However, Bekele failed to finish in Mombasa last year, when Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese took the title. Asked whether he feared Tadese here, Bekele said: It’s not a matter of fearing anyone. I just run my own race.” Bekele gained a small measure of revenge by beating Tadese in a close finish in the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country on 12 January. 
Tadese said that he is “ready for this competition”, adding that he had prepared in Eritrea, away from his track-season preparation base in Madrid. Of the contrasting weather expected, compared with the high heat and humidity of Mombasa, he said: “In African countries like Eritrea, Kenya and Ethiopia, we have cold and hot. I know the course and it was cold (in January). I think it is no problem.
“Kenenisa is a strong athlete but I am prepared for this competition.” On the inexperienced Kenyan team (five athletes making their senior World Cross Country debut and seven aged under 22), Tadese said he would not discount them. “If they are Kenyan athletes they are strong,” he opined.
Dibaba aiming to leave Mombasa memories behind
Bekele’s fellow Ethiopian, Tirunesh Dibaba, is also seeking to regain her senior crown. Having done the short/long course double in 2005, and won the long course title in 2006, she finished runner-up last year to Lornah Kiplagat, of The Netherlands. “Mombasa was very tough because of the weather,” Dibaba reflected today. “Let alone winning, it was very difficult to finish the race.”
Although Dibaba retained her 10,000m world title in Osaka last summer, she encountered problems with stitch. “I never had the problem before,” she recounted today. “Osaka was difficult. I had a stomach stitch and I didn’t think I was going to win. The problem was ongoing and that is why I didn’t compete a lot last season.”
Geoff Wightman, the LOC chair, said that two years of planning had gone into what will be 90 minutes of racing. “It was Christmas 2005 that we started talking about moving on from the European Championships that we had here in 2003 to bidding for the World Championships, and we’re ready,” Wightman said.
“All the preparations are in place and it’s started already because we had a coaching conference last night that was packed to capacity. There were tickets for that being sold on e-bay.” And, he added tongue-in-cheek:&nbsp; “So I am always pleased to see a black market develop in athletics as it begins its fight-back!” He continued: “We had a great reception for the public partners who have enabled this event to come to Scotland with the IAAF council members at the (Edinburgh) Castle last night.
“But, ultimately, it boils down to those 90 minutes. We hope to have a vast number of people on the course. It’s free, there are no turnstiles, there’s no ticketing, so anybody can just rock up on the day. The forecast is good and that is an uncommon thing at this point in Edinburgh. The ambition of the LOC is that we not only deliver the best ever World Cross Country Championships but that we show how good athletics can be.”
Ed Warner, chair of UK Athletics, said: “London 2012 (Olympics) is just over four years away and, as things stand – although we hope there may be other opportunities – this is the last athletics World championships on British soil currently scheduled before 2012. It’s a fantastic opportunity for Britain to show what it can do on the international athletics stage both in organising an event and bringing in the crowds, and creating a great advertisement for our wonderful sport. 
“Many people will say cross country is the purest form of athletic endeavour. In some way I would love to see the Heavens open tomorrow with hail, sleet and driving wind to create the purest challenge, but I think Geoff Wightman would hope for a bit of sunshine to bring the crowds in!”
European participation down
Of the backward slip in the number of countries competing, Pierre Weiss, the IAAF General Secretary, said:&nbsp; “We will have here something like 64 countries taking part and the biggest ever is 76. What are the reasons? Some teams have been facing visa problems but that is not the main reason. The main reason is we have less Europeans.
“In 1973 (first IAAF World Cross Country Championships) the Europeans were 85 per cent of the participants – it was too much, a European competition not a world competition – but today we are down to 29. This will be the main topic of the cross country committee meeting, which starts tomorrow afternoon and continues on Monday – to see what can be done to revive cross country, mainly in Europe.
On this subject, the IAAF President, Lamine Diack, said: “We have teams coming from Canada, Australia, Japan but not some from here (Europe). This problem will not be solved by an IAAF Committee – it needs to be solved at country level.”
Lord Sebastian Coe, a double Olympic 1500m champion, the chair of London 2012 and one of the current IAAF Vice-Presidents, said: “Coaches don’t see any relevance in the preparation of middle and long distance athletes on the track to using cross country. Cross Country was a standard part of my preparation. 
“If you go back down through the annals of distance running – everybody from Carlos Lopes, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Paul Tergat, Noureddine Morceli, Hicham El Guerrouj, Said Aouita – they all used cross country. You rarely find anybody at a European level who thinks there is a correlation between cross country conditioning and track and that is why our standards in distance running are as bad as they are.”
David Powell for the IAAF
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Home Countries International&nbsp;
Tom Lancashire and Gemma Miles led England to convincing team victories at the Home Countries International Cross Country meeting in Edinburgh this afternoon (29).
In a build-up event to tomorrow's 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships at the Holyrood Park venue, the pair were always in command of their races in the first match of its kind to take place since 1990.
Miles took the women's six kilometres title by 17 seconds in 20:30 ahead of team-mate Victoria Wilkinson, with Scotland's Freya Murray third in 20:53.
Lancashire followed her fine display with a much closer win in his 8km race, outpacing Scotland's Tom Russell for victory by three seconds in a time of 24:39 with England's David Webb placing third in 25:14.
Dave Martin PA International for the IAAF

- Edinburgh, Scotland – Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, the dethroned 10-time senior men’s World Cross Country champion, will be hoping for a smoother passage towards regaining his crown tomorrow than the journey he endured today into Edinburgh.

WORLD ATHLETICS CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Success of Edinburgh World XC is recognised

Komon the fighter – Edinburgh 2008

Dibaba sisters make it a family affair – Edinburgh 2008

Younger sister leads the way - Edinburgh 2008

World Junior 10,000m champion makes up for Mombasa 'dnf'