Werknesh Kidane raises her hands in triumph as she wins the women's long course (© Getty Images)
“Selam everyone,
I’m in Brussels for the World Cross Country championships. Sometime after the last World Championships, in Paris, I started having a little problem with my leg, but I ran at the World Athletics Final and ran in Japan and four days later went to the All Africa Games.
The results there were not disappointing – in fact they were good: I was second. Immediately after that, I went to the provinces because my father was ill. I was supposed to go to India for the Afro-Asian Games, but I didn’t go. I stayed with my family in Axum for about a week while my father recovered.
He’s fine and it was nice to see everyone. I usually go in the rainy season, which is the European summer, but last year when we were preparing for the World Championships, I didn’t go, so it had been over a year.
I live with my uncle, who is like a brother to me, and his family in Addis Ababa, and I have my younger brother and sister with me also, but I’m thinking of moving out, and having my siblings come with me.
The next thing I ran was the Ekiden in Japan. My right leg kept getting numb, though, and when I ran on the road it bothered me. But a few days later, I ran the Great Ethiopian Run, mainly because I was representing my country in the team competition. I placed third. I didn’t pay much attention to the problem with my leg for a while and since these were all competitions where I was representing my country, I felt I had an obligation that I had to meet.
Not that any of these results were bad – they were all first through third. But thankfully, my leg is fine now.
That was my first time having an injury like that. I’ve been sick before, and if I carry a heavy load of training, sometimes my knee bothers me, but I had never experienced an injury like this before.
But more recently, I ran three cross country races in Spain, and I was first in each one and then we had our cross country championships at Jan Meda in Addis Ababa, where I ran the 8k and the 4k and won both.
In the 8k, I took off with two laps remaining and Teyiba [Erkesso] followed me. After one more lap, I shook her off and won by a wide margin. The next day, it was a little harder. I began my finishing kick with about 300m left, and the winning margin wasn’t very much.
So the results so far have been good; we just have to see what happens next. This will be my second time running both races at the World Championships. In the 4k, Edith Masai beat me last year. I had expected some really tough competition to also come from Paula this time.
Anyway, our team has prepared well, even though there hasn’t been all that much time after our championships, and I expect we’ll have a good competition.
May God be with us, and with you all, too."
Werknesh