Dinkesa and Bizunesh Bekele strike in Seville

Ethiopia’s Abebe Dinkesa and Bezunesh Bekele clinched impressive wins at the ‘24rd Cross Internacional de Itálica’ - the fifth of the current 2005/2006 series of IAAF cross country permit races - held today in Santiponce (Seville).

In doing so Dinkesa and Bekele had to defeat their more heralded compatriots  Sileshi Sihine and Meselech Melkamu. With their compatriots Kenenisa Bekele and Gelete Burika having also snatched fine wins yesterday in Edinburgh, this weekend has made clear that Ethiopians athletes remain on a high.

Men’s race: Second time lucky for Dinkesa

Reigning World Half Marathon Fabiano Joseph of Tanzania used his trade-mark tactic of front-running and from the gun set the pace alongside Qatar’s Jamal Bilal Salem (5th in the short race at last year’s Worlds). As a consequence of Salem’s brisk pace only five more athletes (Ethiopia’s Sihine, Dinkesa and Deriba Mergia, Kenya’s Charles Kamathi and Fabiano Joseph) still kept up their chances of winning at halfway, while the local hero Juan Carlos De la Ossa was running isolated in a lonesome seventh.

Dinkesa made his move well within the last 2km loop and only reigning 5000 and 10,000m World silver medallist Sihine could live with Dinkesa’s surge. This pair soon built a handsome margin of 50m over the rest of the leading pack. The spectacle provided by Dinkesa and Sihine was fantastic as Sihine responded to his compatriot’s move overtaking him again and only Dinkesa’s awesome form let him catch Sihine again and romp home in 31:03 and a seven-second margin over Sihine while Charles Kamathi took the minor place on the podium only one second behind Sihine as the Ethiopian jogged to the finish line once the win was out of reach for him.

In the fight for fourth place Salem pipped Joseph at the finish line and it was so close that they were given the same time while De la Osa completed a good race but had to settle for seventh 33 seconds adrift Dinkesa.

Born on 6 March 1984 Dinkesa has had a successful beginning to the winter season with three top spots already under his belt: IAAF XC permit in Brussels (18 December), New Year’s Eve race in Bolzano (31 December) and today’s race. By winning today Dinkesa, who placed fourth at the 2005 World Cross (long race) made up for his runner-up’s spot here in 2005 behind another Ethiopian, Maregu Zwedie. “I was afraid of Sihine’s last metres so I pushed as much as possible in the last kilometre to secure the victory” said a more than happy Dinkesa, who has scheduled an outing indoors over Two Miles in Boston, USA, next 28 January where Sihine will also compete.

Women’s race: Clean sweep for Ethiopia

The women’s race became another Ethiopian party. The Africans athletes let Portugal’s Monica Rosa dictate the pace for the two opening kilometres but from then on Bizunesh Bekele, Meselech Melkamu and Derbe Alemu broke away from the field and the only question to be answered at halfway was their eventual order on the podium. The fourth Ethiopian win in a row (following Merima Denboba successes in 2003 & 2004 plus Werknesh Kidane’s 2005 victory) was never in jeopardy.

It was Bizunesh Bekele, who reportedly is not a relative of her renowned countryman Kenenisa Bekele, who took charge of the pacesetting duties with her compatriots tucked behind. At halfway Portugal’s Analia Rosa and Spain’s Rosa Morató ran together in fourth and fifth, while Merima Denboba injured was forced to dropped out.

In the vanguard Bekele’s pace was becoming brisker and brisker and finally her several surges left Alemu adrift with 500 left so it became a two-way tussle between Bekele and the pre-race favourite, Melkamu. But to the surprise of much of the crowd, given her track pedigree, Melkamu was unable to overtake the diminutive Bekele in the later stages who romped home in 21:32, to take a four-second winning margin over Melkamu. Alemu finished third another four seconds behind.

Analia Rosa won the European fight against Rosa Morató and were fourth and fifth respectively with two seconds separating them but still way back (23 and 25 seconds) behind the victor.

“Last year I came tenth at the World Cross Country Championships,” confirmed the winner. “To be honest, that result was not encouraging for me and I was about to leave my career on cross country. Finally I was convinced not to do so and now I’m happy for that decision”.

Bekele’s next appearance on the cross country European circuit will take place in Elgóibar (Spain) next Sunday 22 January where the whole podium from here, Bekele, Melkamu and Alemu, will line-up.

On a statistical note the media assembled here in Itálica asked Bekele about her figures in terms of height and weight and to the amazement of more than one writer, they were told 1.48m and 38 kilos! Bekele went to the Helsinki in the Ethiopian squad as a reserve athlete in the 10,000m but finally her performance was not necessary.

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

Results

Men (10.8km course)
1. Abebe Dinkesa (Eth) 31:03
2. Sileshi Sihine (Eth) 31:10
3. Charles Kamathi (Ken) 31:11
4. Jamal Bilal Salem (Qat) 31 :12
5. Fabiano Joseph (Tan) 31:12
6. Deriba Murgia (Eth) 31:23
7. Juan Carlos de la Osa (Esp) 31:36
8. Aissa Dghoui (Mor) 31:53
9. Yonas Kifle (Eri) 31:57
10. Tesfayohannes Mesfn (Eri) 32:04

Women (6.6km course)
1. Bizunesh Bekele (Eth) 21:32
2. Meselech Melkamu (Eth) 21:36
3. Derbe Alemu (Eth) 21:40
4. Analia Rosa (Por) 21:55
5. Rosa Morató (Esp) 21:57
6. Diana Martín (Esp) 22:03
7. Claudia Pereira (Por) 22:05
8. Jacqueline Martín (Esp) 22:08
9. Bouchra Chaabi (Mor) 22:09
10. Ana Dias (Por) 22:13