News12 Jan 2004


Valladolid victories for Gebremariam and Kidane

FacebookTwitterEmail

Werknesh Kidane (ETH) wins the 2004 Valladolid xc (© Miguel Angel Santos)

Valladolid, SpainEthiopia’s Gebregziabher Gebremariam proved to be the strongest athlete by far at the ‘XVI Cross Internacional de Valladolid’ held yesterday.

The young Ethiopian, still 19, is the current World Cross Country bronze medallist (long race) and he took over the race right from the start. However, the pace was not fast in the early stages and no less than 13 runners were still in the leading pack in the third kilometre.

It was then that Gebremariam decided to step up the pace and only the Kenyan pair of former World 10,000m champion Charles Kamathi and steeplechaser Thomas Kiplatan, could live with his pace.

However, neither of them dared pass the Ethiopian who surprisingly slowed down the pace in the next couple of kilometres allowing another trio of athletes join the head of the race: Ethiopia’s Ketema Negussie, Portugal’s Eduardo Henriques and Mexico’s Alejandro Suárez.

By then it was clear that Gebremariam’s tactic was quite different to the one he used last Sunday in Fuensalida (Spain) when he broke away from the start and romped home 1:17(!) ahead of Morocco’s Abderrahim Goumri, who placed 10th and 15th in the short and long races respectively in Lausanne last March.

Gebremariam pushed hard again in the eighth kilometre to be joined only by Kamathi and Kiplatan, who were always in close attendance.

In terms of the winner there were to be no surprises at the end and Gebremariam only need to change-up a gear to storm away from the Kenyans.

However, unexpectedly in the battle for second Kiplatan beat his more heralded compatriot Kamathi and finished four seconds behind Gebremariam, while Kamathi was third another five seconds adrift.

Portugal's European Cross Country bronze medallist Eduardo Henriques finished strongly to take fourth ahead Suárez (12th at the Worlds in Paris over 5000m) with a former (1998) European 5000m champion Isaac Viciosa, of Spain in sixth almost a full minute behind the winner.

Kidane runs solo

The women’s event also saw the greatness of an Ethiopian star in the guise this time of Werknesh Kidane, the reigning World Cross Country long course champion.

Unlike Gebremariam, the 22-year-old Kidane didn’t take the lead until halfway as she felt comfortable running behind the early leaders, Portugal’s Analia Rosa and Britain’s Liz Yelling. The Briton was one of the squad who had collected the European team gold in Edinburgh last December in addition to her 8th individual ranking.

Kidane, who snatched gold and silver in the long and short races respectively at the last Worlds in Lausanne, surged strongly over the last lap, and the two Europeans could not sustain any kind of challenge.

Kidane, the World 10,000m track silver medallist, won by a huge margin of 21 seconds over Yelling who dropped Rosa with 1500m to go, finishing eight seconds clear of the Portuguese.

Results

Men (10,725m course)
1 Gebre Gebremariam (Eth) 31:29
2 Thomas Kiplatan (Ken) 31:33
3 Charles Kamathi (Ken) 31:38
4 Eduardo Henriques (Por) 32:19
5 Alejandro Suárez (Mex) 32:27
6 Isaac Viciosa (Esp) 32:27
7 Ketema Negussie (Eth) 32:28
8 Alejandro Gómez (Spain) 32:42
9 Ramiro Morán (Esp) 32:53
10  Michael Ngaseke (Zim) 33:02

Women (6725m course)
1 Werknesh Kidane (Eth) 22:41
2 Liz Yelling (Gbr) 23:02
3 Analia Rosa (Por) 23:10
4 Marina Bastos (Por) 23:21
5 Helena Sampaio (Por) 23:28
6 Laura Pinela (Esp) 23:40
7 Nebiat Habtemariam (Eri) 23:56
8 Natalia Rodríguez (Esp)  24:16
9 Eva Arias (Esp) 24:53
10 Alma de las Heras (Esp) 25:07

Pages related to this article
DisciplinesCompetitions
Loading...