Sergiy Lebid wins Belfast Cross Country (© Mark Shearman - Athletics Images)
Sergiy Lebid ended the African domination in Belfast yesterday at the latest IAAF cross country permit meeting, and hopes to do the same in Lausanne at this year’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Africans had won the last 10 editions of the Belfast International Cross Country but the in-form Ukrainian was determined to end that sequence on his first visit to the Stormont course, and he duly delivered his usual fast last lap to leave a group of five Africans trailing in his wake.
Eamonn Martin was the last European man to win this race, when he defeated John Ngugi in 1991, and the former London and Chicago Marathons winner was in Belfast as team manager of the England team, and witnessed an impressive display by Lebid.
The Italian-based European cross country champion was at the back of a leading group of six going into the fifth and final lap, but when he unleashed his kick for home in the last 300m there was no doubting the winner of a quality race.
Just five days earlier, Lebid had won the Campaccio cross country near Milan and reigning IAAF World Junior Cross Country champion Gebre Gebremariam and the World 5000m track champion Richard Limo – second and seventh respectively in that race – were among the quintet doing battle with him during that final circuit of the 8km race in Belfast yesterday.
Fabian Joseph and Boniface Kiprop, who were both beaten by Lebid in Brussels just before Christmas (when the double World Cross Country champion Kenenisa Bekele destroyed the field), and the 2001 Belfast winner Daniel Gachara, completed the leading group but Lebid is so powerful in the closing stages that he rarely gets outkicked.
“My training is prepared to make me very strong for the finish of a race,” Lebid said after winning by two seconds from Gebremariam. He added: “It was the same first and second positions as on Monday, and the same winning margin … but in that race I left my kick for home until slightly later, 250 metres.” he said.
Lebid, who won his third European cross country title in Medulin, Croatia, last month, continued, “I want to successfully defend my title in Edinburgh later this year, because I want to equal Paulo Guerra’s record of four wins, and after that I want to keep on winning it.”
“But I also want to challenge the Africans in Lausanne. I have proved once that I can get on the podium at the World Cross Country Championships and I want to do it again ... and then again! It is a hard race, because there are so many good Africans, but I have belief in myself. I was confident of winning in Belfast, and I found it a very fast course and very enjoyable.
World Indoor 1500m champion Rui Silva, the Portuguese 4km champion, did not fare so well over double the distance and was even out-sprinted by local athlete Gary Murray, and so just failed to finish in the top 10.
Ethiopia’s World 4km silver medallist Werknesh Kidane won the women’s race with a fast final lap, recording the fastest time in the race for six years.
An inspired Hayley Yelling, sister-in-law of Liz who missed the race through illness, set the pace for the first two laps and simply refused to allow Kidane on to her shoulder, as she kept grinding it out with her rivals strung out behind her.
Yelling has an excellent record in the domestic Reebok Cross Challenge, which was incorporated into the event for the first time, and she produced one of the best performances of her career to eventually take second.
She admitted to looking for a top 10 position before the race and was understandably delighted with her run, although unable to go with Kidane when the Ethiopian picked up the pace on the final lap.
Beaten by World 4km champion Edith Masai a week earlier in Newcastle, Kidane was delighted to stand on top of the podium this time to extend her fine record in Ireland with a World junior victory in Belfast in 1999, and a senior 4km silver medal in Dublin last year. Speaking through an interpreter, she said: “I thought I would win and am happy with my run.”
USA’s World cross bronze medallist Colleen de Reuck, currently staying in Ipswich (in the east of England) with a former South African school friend as she prepares for Lausanne, was on the podium in this race for the third time in five years.
She said: “Things are going well although I am not as sharp as I was last year. I will be looking for a top 10-15 place in Lausanne and a week later will run the US marathon trials because I want to compete in the World Championships this summer.”
The first junior, in 22nd position among the senior women, was European Youth Olympics 1500m champion Katrina Wootton who shares the same coach and club as Paula Radcliffe – who has won this Belfast event four times – and is already running faster than the world marathon record-holder was at the same age.
The junior men’s race saw England international Ryan McLeod – son of 1984 Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Mike - in second place behind Ireland’s Mark Christie.
Bob Frank for the IAAF
Men (8km)
1 Sergiy Lebid (UKR) 24:45
2 Gebre Gebremariam (ETH) 24:47
3 Daniel Gachara (KEN) 24:48
4 Fabian Joseph (TAN) 24:49
5 Boniface Kiprop (UGA) 24:49
6 Richard Limo (KEN) 24:55
7 Glynn Tromans (GBR) 25:07
8 Dermot Donnelly (GBR) 25:08
9 Spencer Barden (GBR) 25:10
10 Gary Murray (IRL) 25:24
Women (5km)
1 Werknesh Kidane (ETH) 16:46
2 Hayley Yelling (GBR) 17:01
3 Colleen de Reuck (USA) 17:10
4 Naomi Mugo (KEN) 17:13
5 Anne Keenan Bickley (IRL) 17:14
6 Eyerusalem Kuma (ETH) 17:17
7 Rahab Ndungu (KEN) 17:21
8 Hayley Tullett (GBR) 17:26
9 Rosanna martin (ITA) 17:38
10 Sharon Morris (GBR) 17:40
