Gebremariam supreme in World XC
There was no touching Geb in the last 100m
Gebre Gebremariam secretly picked his way to this title, not showing his hand until 100m from the finish when his devastating finishing kick left Moses Kipsoro in his wake. Kenya’s losing streak is now ten years, dating back to Paul Tergat’s win in 1999.
Kenenisa Bekele’s absence made sure that there would be a new winner in the men’s race and it was probably written in the stars that Ethiopian Gebrimariam should extend the nations World XC winning streak to 9 in the last 10 years.
The final race of the 2009 World XC championships saw the seniors tackle 12kms of the Jordanian course. As Survivor’s classic rock anthem the Eye of the Tiger rang out the athletes sprinted, boxed and jostled up the long hill of the first 400m.
Interestingly the first km was pretty steady as the leaders went through in 3.05, this probably explained why the lead group was a mass. At this point 2009 London Marathon contender, and 2007 World XC winner, Zersenay Tadese decided that he wasn’t there for a jog and mustered his Eritrean troops to the fore.
The big hill at 4km started to thin out the leaders and a group of around 30 was led by Ethiopian Lilesa in 11.16, and it was this point that the pace began to really pick up. In the middle of a block of 150 miles per week training Tadese’s basic speed was impressive and he took the ever-thining group through 5km in around 14.20.
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He swapped the lead with Kenyan Kisori for the next 2kms as the leaders were continually whittled away at until going into the last 4km the group, containing Qatarian Shaheen, Kenyan Moses Mosop and eventual winner Gebremariam amongst others, was down to around 12 athletes. This was to be the selection from where winner was to emerge.
At 7km Kisori really kicked, followed by team mate Mosop, but the group remained resilient and this was to be the most compact finishing group of the day. Mosop, Kenyan Komon, Lilesa and Tadese too’d and fro’d for the next kilometre and with 2k left it was anyone’s race.
Coming to the last hill with 600m to go Kisori and Komon pushed hard, and this spurred the up-to-now anonymous Moses Kipsiro to the fore, however it wasn’t to be for the Ugandan as with 100m to go Ethiopian Gebremariam hit the front for the first time, his finishing speed leaving the runner’s up wanting as he exploded to a superb win.
Kenya managed to win the team prize, with the team packing well in the last kilometre to beat their arch-rivals Ethiopia, with Tadese’s Eritrea in third.
Provisional results
Individual
1 Gebregziabher Gebremariam ETH
2 Moses Ndiema Kipsiro UGA
3 Zersenay Tadese ERI
4 Leonard Patrick Komon KEN
5 Habtamu Fikadu ETH
6 Mathew Kipkoech Kisori KEN
Team
1. Kenya
2. Ethiopia
3. Eritrea
