Benita Johnson wins the Amorebieta Cross Country (© Unai Sansuátegui)
Reigning World long course champion Benita Johnson leads a full slate of Olympic, cross country and track medallists as the international cross country season kicks into full gear at Saturday’s View From Great Edinburgh Cross Country - IAAF permit – meeting (15 Jan) in the Scottish capital.
Women - Johnson takes on Ethiopian elite
Johnson arrives in Edinburgh just as her momentum towards a title defence begins to gather substantial steam. Last weekend, the 25-year-old Australian defeated Kenya's three-time World short course champion Edith Masai in Amorebieta, Spain, just nine days after her 43-second victory over Catherine Ndereba at the San Silvestro Vallecana 10-K in Madrid on New Year's Eve.
As race day at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park approaches, the Australian’s apparent comfort on the eastern reaches of the United Kingdom may be on her side as well. Prior to making her marathon debut at the ING New York City Marathon last November - she was 14th in 2:38:03 - Johnson bounced back from the tendonitis and iron deficiency that hampered her 2004 track campaign with a 1:07:55 Half Marathon win at the BUPA Great North Run in Newcastle in late September, again topping Masai.
In Edinburgh’s 6.3km contest, Johnson will face Ejegayehu Dibaba, the Ethiopian she out-kicked en route to her world crown, for the first time in cross country competition since their race in Brussels last March. While Johnson’s current form is readily apparent, Dibaba’s is not. The Olympic silver medallist at 10,000 metres has raced only twice since Athens: at the World Athletics Final where she was third at 5000 metres, and at the Chiba Ekiden in late November, where she contributed a solid 10 kilometre leg to Ethiopia's winning effort.
Tirunesh Dibaba, Ejegayehu’s younger sister, returns to defend the title she captured last year when Great Britain’s premiere cross country event was held in Newcastle. The younger Dibaba, the reigning World Champion in the 5000m and the Olympic bronze medallist in the event, also hasn’t raced since Chiba where she handily won the 7.4km stage.
Great Britain will be well represented as well. European champion Hayley Yelling, fifth behind Johnson in Amorbieta last weekend, toes the line as well, along with Kathy Butler, who raced to victory at last month’s Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños. Butler was fourth in Amorbieta.
Other key entrants include Kenyan marathon star Susan Chepkemei in her first race since chasing Paula Radcliffe to the wire at the New York Marathon; Meselech Melkamu, the reigning World Junior Cross Country Champion; and Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat. Kiplagat, fifth in the Olympic 10,000, also hasn’t raced since finishing seventh in New York’s five borough race.
Men – Kipchoge tops the guest list
While the anticipated appearance by triple-double World Cross Country Champion Kenenisa Bekele, and his subsequent withdrawal last weekend after the tragic death of his fiancée dominated the attention of the men’s race, organisers have nonetheless assembled the strongest cross country field of the 2004-05 season for the 9.2km race.
Eliud Kipchoge, the reigning World 5000m champion and Olympic bronze medallist in the event, tops the field in only his second outing of the winter season. Last weekend, the 20-year-old Kenyan beat a solid field in the four kilometres race in the final contest of Athletics Kenya's Cross Country series. In November, just prior to taking a three-month competitive break, Kipchoge shattered Haile Gebrselassie's course record in the Four Miles of Groningen road race, in Groningen, Netherlands. Since his Athens bronze, the Kenyan has won four of his five races, the only loss being a narrow defeat by Ivan Heshko in a road mile in Newcastle in late September.
Riding nearly the same momentum as the women's favourite is Zersenay Tadesse, the Olympic 10,000 metre bronze medallist. Since Athens, the 22-year-old Eritrean has won five of his six races, including a pair of cross country wins in Fuensalida and Soria Spain. In last weekend's Cross Internacional del Calzado in Fuensalido, Tadesse defeated five-time European champion Sergiy Lebid by a hefty 12-second margin. Tadesse, who was fourth in this event last year and sixth at the World Championships last March, has only been running since 2002.
Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam, who finished second to Kenenisa Bekele in both races at last year's World Championships, returns to competition this weekend after a six-week lay-off. In late November, he won the Cross Internacional Valle de Llodio in Spain less than a week after winning a 10-K stage for the victorious Ethiopian squad at the Chiba Ekiden.
Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the World Record holder in the 3000m Steeplechase, makes his first appearance since his runaway victory at the World Athletics Final. Though he rarely races on the grass, he showed he is a force here as well after his fifth place finish at last year’s World Cross Country Championships short course race.
Filling out the field are Sergiy Lebid, Europe’s undisputed cross country King; Dejene Berhanu, who lowered the the Ethiopian national record in the half marathon to 59:37 at last September’s BUPA Great North Run; Australian Craig Mottram, like Johnson, the winner of Madrid’s New Year’s Eve 10-K; and American Tim Broe, an Olympic 5000m finalist.
The afternoon’s action begins at 1:05 pm with a national men’s 4 kilometre race, with the international men taking the line at 1:25, and the women at 2:00. All three races will be televised by the BBC.
The storms and high winds that pounded Scotland earlier in the week have vanished, with race day temperatures expected to reach a high of 10° (51° F.), with a slight chance of showers in the forecast.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
