News24 Jan 2009


Gelan shocks Etea, Leilsa and Mesfin victorious in Sululta Cross Country

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Abebu Gelan collects a big win at the Sululta XC (© Elshadai Negash)

Upcoming runner Abebu Gelan’s shock victory over World junior Cross Country silver medallist Emebet Etea in the junior women’s 6km race was the highlight of the Sululta Inter-club Cross Country meeting held in Sululta, 25kms north of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

In the other races, Feyissa Lelisa continued his domestic dominance with victory in the men’s 12km, while African junior 10,000m bronze medallist Hunegnaw Mesfin was a run-away winner of the junior men’s 8km.

Gelan stings Etea in runaway victory

Traditionally a favourite training place for Ethiopia’s elite athletes, Sululta, which is at an altitude of 2800m above sea level, hosted its first national Cross Country that saw over 500 runners from 28 clubs take part in four events. But the punishing conditions of the race - very hard grass turf normally used for cattle grazing and an open air course with virtually no spectators - saw several runners drop out even in the early stages of the race.

But the highlight of the day belonged to Gelan, who is proving to be the discovery of the domestic circuit this season, claim a stunning victory over Etea, who was second in Edinburgh last year and won a stunning 1500m/3000m double at the African junior championships in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2009. A well-beaten Etea even failed to hold on to the podium positions finishing fourth in a one-woman show. 

Gelan, who finished sixth at the World Half Marathon Championships in Rio last year, maintained control throughout three laps of a difficult race. She dropped all but 20 of the starters by the end of the first lap (2km). Her front-running tactics undid 16 more 2km later and at the bell, only Tigist Mamuye, Helima Hassen, and Etea were posing any sort of danger to an inevitable victory.

With a kilometre left, Gelan dropped all her rivals opening a 300m gap on the chasing pack. The gap increased to 27 seconds at the end of a one-sided contest as she crossed the line in 21:08.86 ahead of Mamuye and Hassen with Etea struggling in fourth.

With cross country victories in Sendafa in October, Assela two months ago, and Leffrinckoucke (France), Gelan has now emerged as the front-runner to take the national cross country title at the Jan Meda race course in Addis Ababa in February.

Lelisa edges Fekadu in one-club dominance

It was a completely different story in the men’s 12km race as Feyisa Lelisa, second in the 2008 Great Ethiopian Run, edged out the slightly more experienced Habtamu Fekadu, winner of the 2007 Obudu Ranch 11.5km race in Nigeria, in a tightly contested race dominated by runners of the Defence club.

After an explosive start to the race, the field of 140 starters disintegrated into just 30 runners by the second kilometre. A couple of very fast laps (2kms each) later, the field was down to four runners with African 5000m bronze medallist Ali Abdosh pulling clubmates Fekadu, Lelisa, and Yetwale Kinde away from the rest of the field to set up a one-club race.

Fekadu was next to hit the front taking the lead for the next two laps with only Lelisa able to match his front-running by tucking along the zig-zag course.

At the bell, the two runners were running shoulder-to-shoulder as Abdosh struggled to keep Kinde from overtaking third place some 40m back.

Fekadu was still marginally ahead when the duo entered the last 30m of the race, but Lelisa overtook him on the finish line for a hard-fought, but important victory. His late surge brought back memories of the Great Ethiopian Run in November last year where he similar beat Deriba Merga at the finish line for second place behind winner Chala Dechasa. Abdosh won the battle for third place after successfully holding off a late surge from Kinde.

“I am happy with the victory,” said Lelisa. “I knew that I had an explosive finish. This year, I want to be world junior cross country champion with the help of God.”

Mesfin and Seid score big wins

In the other two races, African junior 10,000m silver medallist Hunegnaw Mesfin was a run-away winner of the men’s 8km junior race. The 18-year old, who was 13th in the junior at the World Cross Country Championships last year, dominated throughout to take a ten-second victory over Bezu Worku.

Amane Seid, who ran 1:11.31 for the Half Marathon to finish second in Yangzhou, was in equally dominant form taking the women’s 8km race from Se’ada Kedir who was more than twelve seconds behind the race winner.

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF

Leading results -

12km senior men
1. Feyisa Lelisa (Defence) 36:43.04
2. Habtamu Fekadu (Defence) 36:43.26
3. Ali Abdosh (Defence) 37:19.84

8km senior women
1. Amane Seid (Oromiya Prisons) 29:11.64
2. Se’ada Kedir (Bethel Teaching) 29:24.44
3. Tigist Kefle (Oromiya Prisons) 29:41.41

8km junior men
1. Hunegnaw Mesfin (Ethiopian Banks) 24:38.57
2. Bezu Worku (Bethel Teaching) 24:48.53
3. Atalay Yersaw (Defence) 24:57.94

6km junior women
1. Abebu Gelan (Prisons Police) 21:08.86
2. Tigist Mamuye (Defence) 21.28.55
3. Halima Hassen (Prisons Police) 21:31.13

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