Madrid, Spain – Ethiopia’s Tadesse Tola (27:53) and Spain’s Marta Domínguez (33:05) clinched fine victories at the ‘San Silvestre Vallecana’, a 10km road race held in the Spanish capital during the night of New Year’s Eve (31 December). Their wins were decided inside the last kilometre as they had to hold off the tough challenges provided by Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh and Diana Martín respectively.

Tola arrives last but romps home first – men’s race

Tola’s presence in Madrid as a replacement athlete was only released the day prior to the event following a late withdrawal of Kenya’s five-time World Cross Country champion Paul Tergat, who could not compete due to a minor injury reportedly.

From the opening kilometre, the 21-year-old Ethiopian took charge of the race thanks to a brisk pace in the 2:43-2:45 range. The leading group took advantage of the down-hill circuit to go through the 3000m point in 8:10 with six men still in contention in the guise of Tola, Kenya’s ‘defending champion’ Kiprono Menjo and the Spanish quartet of Bezabeh, Sergio Sánchez – both led Spain to the European Cross Country team title three weeks ago in Brussels – plus the 37-year-old pair of Alberto García and Chema Martínez.

Shortly after the halfway, which was reached in 13:36, the leading pack became a triumvirate with Tola still making the pushing duties closely followed by his former countryman Bezabeh and Menjo while the Spaniards simply could not live with the African-born frantic pace.

When the clock was reading 20:00 the Madrid-based Bezabeh went to the front for the first time as the numerous crowd assembled in the streets cheered him non-stop. By the 8000m point (21:48)  the profile of the race changes dramatically to face a thrilling up-hill two final kilometres in which firstly Menjo and then Bezabeh began to falter after Tola injected a sudden change of speed. As a result, the Kenyan lost any chances to regain his title while the Spaniard’s hopes of improving on his last year’s runner-up place also vanished.

Tola – who finished seventh at the 2007 World Cross Country championships held in Mombasa - ran comfortably on top over the closing 1000m to enter the stadium unopposed with a sizeable margin over his pursuers, 27:53 being his winning time with Bezabeh 13 seconds in arrears.

A fading Menjo kept his minor place on the podium despite Martínez’s threatening presence over the last metres with the Kenyan romping home some 33 seconds behind the winner but himself another five clear of the Spaniard, a former winner here in 2002 while the big disappointment came from Abderrahim Goumri as the Moroccan record holder in the Marathon (2:05:30 in London 2008) was never a factor and had to settle for ninth with a 29:57 clocking.

Spaniards get the better of Jepkorir - women's race

Kenya’s Eunice Jepkorir and Russia’s Yekaterina Volkova may be the reigning Olympic 3000m steeplechase silver and bronze medallists respectively - and the third (Jepkorir) and second (Volkova) fastest ever over the distance - but Spain’s Marta Domínguez, who is the national record holder at the event (9:21.76) and Diana Martín stamped their authority over the 10,000m course in Madrid.

Domínguez and Jepkorir – who ran throughout the race accompanied by lots of male athletes in the joint men and women event – opened very cautiously and they shared the head at halfway in 16:03 while Martín and her compatriot Nuria Fernández (1500m PB of 4:03.37) travelled no less than 15 seconds behind.

For the surprise of everyone Jepkorir – who convincingly had beaten Domínguez by 49 seconds 10 days before at the Venta de Baños XC permit -began to lose ground in the ninth kilometre while the unheralded 27-year-old Martín joined Domínguez in the lead.  

The final stages were full of excitement with the two local steeplechasers sharing the lead but surrounded by dozens of athletes. It was in the final hill before entering the stadium that the 33-year-old Domínguez broke away from Martín to build a four-second margin at the tape (33:05-33:09) and claim her third victory at the event while Jepkorir only managed the third place with a 33:33 performance. Volkova (35:53 in ninth) and Romania’s Cristina Casandra -Beijing 5th placed also in the steeplechase – (35:03 in seventh) had below-par outings.

“Honestly, I’m a bit surprised for my win as I thought it was going to be very tough to defeat my rivals today, especially Jepkorir. We ran very comfortably the first half of the event and when the Kenyan began to falter my chances of winning raised a lot although I had to fight hard to beat Diana Martín,” declared Domínguez before adding: “I have no indoor plans for 2009 as my only focus for this year is the IAAF Worlds in Berlin where I’ll try to bounce back from my fall (at the last barrier before the final water-jump)  in Beijing with only 220m to go when I was in medal contention alongside Jepkorir and Volkova.”

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

Leading Results (10km) -

Men:
 1. Tadesse Tola (Ethiopia) 27:53
 2. Alemayehu Bezabeh (Spain) 28:06
 3. Kiprono Menjo (Kenya) 28:26
 4. Chema Martínez (Spain)  28:31
 5. Alberto García (Spain) 28:59
 6. Nick McCormick (Great Britain)  29:01
 7. Sergio Sánchez (Spain)   29:24
 8. Ignacio Cáceres (Spain) 29:48
 9. Abderrahim Goumri (Mor) 29:57
10. Javier López (Esp) 30:07

Women:
 1. Marta Domínguez (Spain)  33:05
 2. Diana Martín (Spain) 33:09
 3. Eunice Jepkorir (Kenya) 33:33
 4. Nuria Fernández (Spain) 33:44
 5. Esther Desviat (Spain) 34:03
 6. Beatriz Ros (Spain)  34:59
 7. Cristina Casandra (Rom)  35:03
 8. Yekaterina Volkova (Russia) 35:53
 9. Elena María Espeso (Esp) 35:53
10. María Sánchez (Esp) 36:12