As expected, fourtime World 10K Champion Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and European 5K Champion Alberto García of Spain easily qualified to set up their highly-awaited showdown in Sunday’s final.
For Gebrselassie, it was a 7:51.43 victory which he had under control after letting García’s teammate, Jesús España (3rd in heat with 7:52.41) do the tempo-setting for most of the race.
Of the others in Geb’s heat, Holland’s Gert-Jan Liefers showed superb energy reserve at the end, placing second in 7:51.95. Britain’s John Mayock took the final automatic spot with his fourth-place 7:52.59.
The other section started out at a blazing pace, thanks to former European junior champion, Günther Weidlinger of Austria.
With 900 metres remaining, García moved to the front and held the lead position until he was sure of a qualifying place.
Then, with less than a lap remaining, the Spaniard relaxed, dropping back to his eventual third place (7:50.95) as Kenya’s Luke Kipkosgei (7:47.50) and Abioyote Abate of Ethiopia (7:47.57) staged an exciting but meaningless sprint to the finish.
World Half Marathon runner-up, Jaouad Gharib of Morocco, took the remaining automatic spot with 7:51.59 just behind García, as Weidlinger’s 7:51.94 was the top time qualifier.
