Gelete Burka wins in Edinburgh (© Mark Shearman)
2006 World short course Cross Country champion Gelete Burka will chase a third successive victory at the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country – IAAF XC permit meeting - on Saturday 12 January 2008.
Burka is determined to score a hatrick at the Holyrood Park venue and ensure the women's title continues to remain in Ethiopian hands since the meeting was first staged in 2005. World and Olympic 10,000 metres champion Tirunesh Dibaba was victor on that occasion, but a year later Burka surprisingly demolished her training partner's hopes with her finishing pace.
Last January Burka again produced a powerful display in the closing stages to win by nine seconds ahead of Kenya’s former World Junior Cross Country champion Vivian Cheruiyot and Benita Johnson, Australia's former World long course Cross Country gold medallist.
Cheruiyot had a superb outdoor season, in June setting the Kenyan 5000m track record when coming second to Meseret Defar’s World record run in Oslo, also finishing inside the old world mark. Cheruiyot again chased home the Ethiopian at the World Championships at the beginning of September before closing her summer on the track three weeks later when winning the World Athletics Final.
"I'm delighted that Burka is returning - she's an exceptional talent," commented Andy Caine, the event's elite athletes director. "I also believe Cheruiyot will be returning to Edinburgh a much more accomplished performer after her high profile track season and does have the credentials to spoil Burka's target."
The BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country is part of a festival of running in Holyrood Park with the BUPA Great Winter Run, a mass participation 5km run for runners of all abilities, the curtain raiser to the day.
The main international men's and women's races which take place at Holyrood Park, will be the fifth of the eleven permit meetings in the IAAF XC series, and will be particularly important this year given the same venue will host the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, 30 March 2008.
Nicola Hedley for the IAAF
