World Cross Country Championships

While the 36th running of the World Cross-Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 30th went relatively unnoticed by local media, despite Canada fielding full teams in all four events, Ethiopia surely rejoiced in a strong showing by its top athletes heading into the Beijing Olympics. Runners from this small, yet powerful country swept the gold medals in all four individual races, as well as winning the team title in two of the four categories (team silver in the others).

Since the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) changed the World Cross-Country Championships format back to single events in the senior category last year (from two events – long course and short course), the races on the senior side can again be called “the toughest race in the world”, as countries are able to field teams of six senior women and nine senior men, unlike the Olympics, where a country is only

permitted to have three athletes per event. Thus, Canadian athletes standing at the start line are looking at racing against six or nine of the top Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc. in the world – a daunting task, to say the least!

Now unquestionably the greatest cross-country runner in history, Kenenisa Bekele won his record 12th individual title (6 Long Course, 5 five Short Course, 1 Junior) at the World Cross-Country Championships in the senior men’s event. It was not an easy victory for the world record holder at 5000m and 10,000m, as he overcame, in turn, a missed flight, overnight stomach troubles, a dislodged shoe early in the 12km race and a field of competitors eager to dislodge Bekele’s crown. The Ethiopian runner did all he could to help his country to the team title, however Kenya claimed the team gold, placing runners in positions 2, 4, 5, 7, 10 & 11 to earn 39 points, beating Ethiopia’s 105 points - each individual placing in cross-country counts as points earned for the team, with the lowest team total winning gold – for example, first place earns 1 point, second earns 2 points and tenth place earns 10 points, etc..

The Canadian senior men’s team, which had a mix of both experience (Joël Bourgeois was competing in his 12th World X-C Championships) and youth (five of the nine men were under 25 years of age), ran strongly against the stiff competition. James Gosselin of Ontario led the Canadians in 91st place.

Not to be outshone by her countryman Bekele, Ethiopian female distance great Tirunesh Dibaba’s win in the 8km race means she joins USA’s Lynn Jennings and her cousin, Derartu Tulu, as a winner of three long course titles, following her previous victories in 2005 and 2006. Dibaba also won short course (4km) gold in 2005 and the junior title in 2004, and now joins Grete Waitz of Norway with five individual golds at the World Cross-Country Championships. She also led the Ethiopian women to victory in the team event, beating Kenya by only 4 points (18 to 22). Incredibly, Dibaba is still only 22 years old!! Look out for her in the 5000m and 10,000m in Beijing.

Like the Canadian men’s team, the women had a blend of experience and rookies. Calgary’s Lisa Harvey competed in her 12th World Cross event, finishing in a solid 77th place, behind fellow Canadians Alexandra Becker (63rd) and Elizabeth Wightman (64th).

As mentioned earlier, Ethiopian runners dominated both junior individual races, with Ibrahim Jeilan winning on the men’s side (8km) and Genzebe Dibaba taking the junior women’s 6km title (and helping Ethiopia to another team gold). If you recognize the name Dibaba, it’s because Genzebe is the younger sister of Tirunesh Diababa who won the senior women’s race!

Led by Kendra Schaaf of Craven, Saskatchewan (20th place), the Canadian junior women’s team placed a very respectable 5th place in the team competition, with Paula Findlay of Edmonton, Danelle Woods of Ottawa also finishing in the top 30 (23rd and 25th, respectively). Two Calgarians were represented in the junior men’s 8km race - Nyial Majock in 60th place and Peter Corrigan in 66th place. This was the first World Junior Cross-Country Championships for both athletes. The Canadian junior men managed a solid 7th place team finish.

Full results and more comprehensive article on the 36th IAAF World Cross-Country Championships can be found at www.iaaf.org.