Kenenisa Bekele takes stunning sprint win in Edinburgh (© Mark Shearman)
World class fields have been assembled at Holyrood Park as the venue for next year’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships plays host to the Event Scotland Great Edinburgh Cross Country – IAAF permit meeting – on Saturday (13 Jan).
Edinburgh will be the host of the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
In recent years the Great Edinburgh Cross Country has become a watchword for excellence and provided some extraordinary racing and more of the same is expected this weekend.
The men’s 9km event arguably pitches the world’s top two male distance runners together as Ethiopia’s mighty Kenenisa Bekele, the five-time double World Cross Country champion, takes on Kenya’s in-form 2003 World 5000m track champion Eliud Kipchoge.
Last year in the Scottish capital Bekele was pushed to the limit before prevailing in a tight battle with Qatar’s double World 3000m Steeplechase gold medallist Saif Saaeed Shaheen, and the Ethiopian cross country ace who is also the World record holder on the track from 5000m and 10,000m will expect a similarly tough test this weekend.
Kipchoge is an outstanding shape after recording a sparkling 26:54 for 10km to win the San Silvestre Vallence road race in Madrid on New Year’s Eve and will be desperate to take Bekele’s scalp in what has become one of the sport’s keenest rivalries.
However, the men’s race over a distance of 9.3km is far from being just a two way battle. Zersenay Tadesse who recorded the same time as Kipchoge in Madrid is also in action and as World Road Running champion cannot be underestimated. The Eritrean winner of the Olympic 10,000m bronze medal enjoys competing in Great Britain as he also won the 2005 Great North Run.
Also bolstering the African challenge is Commonwealth 10,000m champion Boniface Kiprop of Uganda and former World Cross Country silver medallist Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia.
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UPDATE
2005 World Half Marathon champion Fabiano Joseph has replaced Boniface Kiprop. Joseph from Tanzania who finished runner-up in last Saturday's IAAF cross country permit race in Belfast has stepped in for his Ugandan rival who couldn't get a travel visa.
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The race also sees the return of top American distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein who finished fourth last year.
Farah faces stiff 4k challenge
The meeting also boasts a competitive European dominated men’s 4km race.
Heading the contenders is home hope and European Cross Country champion Mo Farah, who finished sixth in Amorebieta last weekend. Among Farah main opponents will be World and Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Rui Silva of Portugal, six-time former European Cross winner Sergiy Lebid of Ukraine and Hungary’s European under-23 cross country champion Barnabas Bene.
WOMEN – Expected Ethiopian party?
The women’s 6.3km event is headed by defending champion Gelete Burka of Ethiopia. Burka won the last ever short course race at the World Cross Country Championships last March and will be keen to provide a strong defence of her title.
However, her compatriot Meselech Melkamu, the 2006 World Cross Country bronze medallist, who like Burka is a former World Junior XC champion, will provide stiff opposition.
Also in the field is 2004 World Cross Country champion Benita Johnson. The Australian who ran 2:22 in the Chicago Marathon in October is using the event as preparation for April’s London Marathon. The 27-year-old is in good form after placing second in a cross country event in Amorebieta, Spain last weekend.
The runner who defeated Johnson in Spain, Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya, also competes in Scotland as does the European under-23 champion Binnaz Uslu who will be looking to improve upon a below par performance in Belfast last weekend.
Other entrants include Britain’s Stephanie Twell, the reigning European junior cross country champion but another Briton the former senior European Cross Country champion Hayley Yelling is a late withdrawal due to illness.
Steve Landells for the IAAF
