Tadesse Zersenay (Eritrea) (© José Pérez Gómez)
San Sebastián, SpainEritrea’s Tadesse Zersenay clinched a thrilling victory at the ‘47th Cross Internacional de San Sebastián’ held this afternoon. In doing so the 20-year-old Eritrean defeated a powerful field which included Ethiopia’s World Junior Cross Country Champion Gebre Gebremariam (2nd) and Abebe Dinkessa (4th), and Kenya’s Albert Chepkurui (3rd). Tanzania’s World silver medallist John Yuda was a last minute withdrawal.
It was third time lucky for the thin (53 kilos) Eritrean, who at last succeeded in taking a race victory on his third outing on Spanish soil this winter, after loses against the Ethiopians Sileshi Sihine and Kenenisa Bekele in Venta de Baños and Seville respectively.
Zersenay is a newcomer to the world’s distance running elite, and will bid to improve on the 30th place he achieved on his debut at the Worlds Championships in Dublin last year, when he lines up for this year’s championships in Lausanne in March.
Unusually, the African runners started the race quite quietly and by the seventh kilometre there were still eleven men in contention. Spain’s steeplechaser Eliseo Martín (PB 8:13:59) tried to break away from the classy field with five minutes on the clock and he even managed to build a 15m gap on the rest.
Martín, who came 6th at the Sydney Oympics (not to confuse with the Spanish record holder Luis Miguel Martín) was reeled in at the fourth kilometre, just when Zersenay took over with the main favourites Chepkurui (“I am almost recovered from my knee injury” he said before the race), Gebremariam and Dinkessa running at his shoulder.
When the leading pack came to the 6500m mark, Martín surged again as the pace set by Chepkurui had slowed down. With two kilometres left, Martín’s efforts paid off and the race developed into a five-way battle comprising the four Africans and the Spaniard.
Over the last km, Dinkessa unsuccessfully tried to pull away but he only dropped the Spaniard, leaving three African challengers. The picture of the closing stages was dramatic, with an open fan of four African runners fighting for victory.
100m before the finish line Dinkessa lost the fight, and finally it was Zersenay clocking 32:48, who prevented Gebremariam (32:49), at 18 years of age (still eligible for the Junior race at the World Championships in Lausanne, next March), from achieving another victory in Spain, after his win from Dinkessa last weekend in Punta de Parayas.
Gebremariam, who is the reigning World Junior Cross Country and 10,000m track champion has raced every Sunday in January, achieving one win and three runner-up places (in Campaccio and Belfast to Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid, and here).
Chepkurui came a close third, just two seconds adrift of Zersenay. This was the 21-year-old Kenyan’s sixth race in Spain this winter, all of which were top three finishes except in the recent Elgóibar race.
“I am happy today because I became the first Eritrean to win such an important race” said Zersenay, the Madrid-based talent who is coached by Jerónimo Bravo.
Britain’s Mike Tagg, a former double winner here in 1969 and 1970, was received with a standing ovation when he made his entrance on to the racecourse.
In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Merima Denboba was on paper the hot favourite after her win at the IAAF Permit race in Seville last Sunday, but eventually it was Kenya’s Pamela Chepchumba who grabbed a narrow win over the Ethiopian.
Chepchumba, who placed 9th at the long race at last year’s Worlds was making her season’s debut in Europe today, after taking second place to her compatriot Monica Wangare last weekend in Kenya.
Kenya’s Ayabei Jepkorit made most of the early running but the main group of favourites, including her compatriots Pamela Chepchumba and Jackline Maranga, and Ethiopia’s Denboba, Teyeba Erkesso and Dibaba Tirunesh, remained bunched together through the first 2188m loop.
Before passing the third kilometre, Denboba shared the lead with Jepkorir and soon she became the only Ethiopian running at the top, while the leading Kenyan contingent remained the same.
Ethiopia’s World Junior Cross Country silver medallist Dibaba Tirunesh was by then running 2 seconds behind this group.
1000m later, it was the 1999 World 4km Cross Country Champion Maranga (performing again after having started a family last year) who was next dropped by the leaders.
Over the closing kilometre, Jepkorir made a huge effort to speed away from Denboba and Chepchuma but to no avail. The final straight witnessed a fierce battle between the last two, with Chepchumba remaining a few strides ahead of Denboba who could not get past the Kenyan, and so settled for second. A fading Jepkorir finished in third, 12 seconds adrift of Chepchumba.
“It has been a nice race for me as the circuit was flat” declared a happy Chepchumba, who will turn 25 next February 28. “I was not too confident of winning, as Merima Denboba was such a strong rival and I had not yet raced against her this season,” added the Kenyan.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
Results:
Men (10,000m course)
1 Tadesse Zersenay (ERI) 32:48
2 Gebre Gebremariam (ETH) 32:49
3 Albert Chepkurui (KEN) 32:50
4 Abebe Dinkessa (ETH) 32:52
5 Eliseo Martín (ESP) 33:04
6 Mohamed Said El Wardi (MAR) 33:14
7 Hicham Gtaib (MAR) 33:15
8 José Manuel García (ESP) 33:21
9 Adam Gobrinski (POL) 33:25
10 Ivan Sanchez (ESP) 33:32
Women (5,624m course)
1 Pamela Chepchumba (KEN) 19:44
2 Merima Denboba (ETH) 19:46
3 Ayabei Jepkorir (KEN) 19:56
4 Jackline Maranga (KEN) 20:12
5 Teyeba Erkesso (ETH) 20:26
6 Dibaba Tirunesh (ETH) 20:29
7 Iris Fuentes-Pila (ESP) 20:30
8 María Abel (ESP) 20:34
9 Helena Sampaio (POR) 20:40
10 Hawa Hussein (TAN) 20:43
