Lebid beats Tariku Bekele in San Sebastian (apologies for the grainy nature of this photograph) (© J.J. Alonso)
San Sebastián, SpainUkraine’s Sergiy Lebid produced an astonishing final sprint to pip Ethiopia’s Tariku Bekele in the closing stages in the ‘Cross Internacional de San Sebastián’ which celebrated yesterday (Sun 30 Jan) its Golden Jubilee - 50 editions! - on a sunny but cold morning.
The women’s race went to Benita Johnson who is the reigning World Cross Country champion in the long race. The Australian ace demolished all opposition from the gun and romped home 31 seconds ahead of former World 10,000m champion Kenya’s Sally Barsosio.
Men’s race: Mud, falls and scintillating sprint
Conditions on the racecourse of Lasarte were gruelling due to the rains and snow that had fallen in the week prior to the event. It was Tanzania’s John Yuda who set the early pace in his comeback to cross country competition after tackling the Marathon event in London and New York last year (PB 2h 10:13 in London)
With 7:40 minutes gone in the race one of the main favourites, Qatar’s Abdullah Ahmad Hassan lost one shoe in the mud and having unsuccessfully triedd to put his shoe on again he decided to take the other shoe off and to run barefoot for the rest of the race. Owing to this incident Hassan faded down to 30th position and only his huge effort led him to finish in a praiseworthy 7th place.
The five-time European Cross Country champion Sergiy Lebid also fell in the following lap but regained his balance soon and didn’t lose ground from the leading group.
Entering the last lap there were still six athletes with chances of winning - Ethiopia’s Tariku Bekele (late entrant), Kenya’s 2003 World 3000 indoor bronze medallist Luke Kipkosgei, Lebid, Yuda, Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop, and Eritrea’s Yonas Kifle. With 300m remaining Bekele and Lebid managed to leave the others and under-took a thrilling sprint.
For Bekele it was much the same story from last weekend in Elgoibar when he and his countryman Maregu Zewdie produced an exciting and victorious (for Bekele) neck to neck final 300m but the result here was the opposite and Bekele, after taking out some metres on Lebid, was overhauled by the Ukrainian just before the finish line.
Kipkosgei took third place on the podium 5 seconds behind Lebid, who snatched his second win in a row after his victory in Tourcoing (France) last Sunday (23 Jan).
Women’s race: Johnson in a class of her own
Benita Johnson finished her European tour in San Sebastián with a remarkable tally of 4 wins, with her only loss being by a mere second in Edinburgh (15 Jan) to Ethiopia’s in-form Tirunesh Dibaba who smashed the World 5000 indoor record in Boston last Saturday with a 14:32.93 clocking.
The Australian distance star found no real challenge from the African contingent yesterday, and right from the start Johnson ruled the pace. The resistance from the rest only lasted one kilometre and from then on the knowledgeable crowd of San Sebastián witnessed a magnificent solo run by Johnson who built a handsome margin of almost 200m over Barsosio, while Ethiopia’s Merima Hashim beat Merima Denboba in the battle for the third place some 40 and 51 seconds behind Johnson respectively.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
with kind thanks to Borja Osés and Gaspar Esnaola
Results
Men (10km)
1. Sergiy Lebid (Ukr) 30:50
2. Tariku Bekele (Eth) 30:51
3. Luke Kipkosgei (Ken) 30:55
4. John Yuda (Tan) 30:57
5. Boniface Kiprop (Uga) 30:59
6. Yonas Kifle (Eri) 31:04
7. Abdullah Ahmad Hassan (Qat) 31:05
8. Fabiano Joseph (Tan) 31:22
9. Andrew Letherby (Aus) 31:29
10. Disi Dieudonne (Rwa) 31:49
Women (5.624km)
1. Benita Johnson (Aus) 19:01
2. Sally Barsosio (Ken) 19:32
3. Merima Hashim (Eth) 19:41
4. Merima Denboba (Eth) 19:52
5. Analia Rosa (Por) 19:55
6. Jacqueline Martin (Esp) 20:10
7. Isabel Eizmendi (Esp) 20:24
8. Asha Gigi (Eth) 20:32
9. Raquel LLamas (Esp) 20:34
10. Ayelech Worku (Eth) 20:48
