Mo Farah takes gold at the Euro Cross Country Championships. © www.photorun.net
Ten years after Jon Brown did so, another British man is the European Cross Country champion. Mo Farah, who was born in Somalia, put an end to Sergey Lebid’s win streak in the event in San Giorgio su Legnano, Italy. Lebed, from Ukraine, hoped to win the title for the seventh time and the sixth in a row, but in the end, he was 30 seconds behind his successor in a well-beaten 12th place.
In the second half of the last of five circuits, Farah broke away from the leading group and was then unstoppable on the way to the biggest win of his life. The 23-year-old ran 27:56 minutes for the 9.95-kilometer course. Portugal’s Fernando Silva took the silver medal in 28:03, while Juan Carlos de la Ossa (Spain) was third in 28:06. Farah said that he was surprised when he spotted Lebid ten meters back at the beginning of the final lap.
“I had a good feeling, since my training had gone very well,” Farah said. He had already caused a surprise at the European track championships in August, when he claimed a silver medal in the 5,000-meter final. “The main factor for my success this year was to remain injury-free after many years of problems,” he said.
There was a surprise in the women’s event as well. The Ukranian Tetyana Holovchenko won the event with a 25:17 clocking for the 8.03-kilometer distance. It was a much closer finish in this race than in the men’s, as Russia’s Maria Konovalova was just one second behind the 26-year-old champion. Serbia’s Olivera Jevtic took third in 25:21. Jo Pavey was regarded as having a good chance to win gold, but the Brit came in only eighth in 25:38.
“I had hoped to perhaps get onto the podium, but I never thought of winning,” Holovchenko said. Until Sunday, she had been known as a middle-distance runner, with personal bests of 2:00.81 minutes for 800 meters and 4:05.01 for 1500 meters.
Ethiopian Tolossa stops Kenyan win streak in Honolulu
Ethiopian Ambesse Tolossa brought the Kenyan win streak at the Honolulu Marathon to an end. He won in 2:13:42 hours, beating five-time winner Jimmy Muindi. The defending champion from Kenya came in second with 2:14:39. Kenyans had won this race for the last ten years. Russia’s Lyubov Denisova took the women’s race in a new course record of 2:27:19. Lyubov Morgunova (Russia), who could not run owing to an injury, had been the course record holder with 2:27:33 from 2004.
Owing to the enormous Japanese interest in this race, the Honolulu Marathon was the biggest race of its kind worldwide for a number of years. This year, 28,635 runners registered. Among them were almost 18,000 from Japan. Because of the high heat and humidity, the race starts at 5:00 a.m.
In the men’s race, a duel between Tolossa and Muindi developed. The Kenyan tried to break away at 32K, but could not get rid of the Ethiopian. Then it was Tolossa’s turn at 37K, and he succeeded. Kenyan Eric Wainana, bronze medal winner at the Olympic Marathon in 1996 and silver medalist in 2000, took third in 2:16:08.
Muindi was not happy with the way Tolossa won the race. “The Ethiopian way of racing is very bad,” he said. The Kenyan was referring to the pacemaking, which he had to do all alone in the decisive part of the race. Almost insulted, Muindi also referred to the time of Tolossa as being “a bad one for a winner.” For Tolossa, this was his third marathon win of the year, after Tokyo in February and San Diego in June.
The decisive moment in the women’s race came at 25K. Denisova left behind Alevtina Biktamirova (Russia), who later placed second in 2:29:42. Third place was taken by Japan’s Eri Hayakawa (2:32:31), while the defending champion, Olesya Nurgalieva (Russia), came in fourth in 2:36:02. “I was not invited to this race as the other elite runners. But that was an extra motivation for me to win here,” said Denisova.
Kenyan winners in Las Vegas and Dallas
There was a lot of talk about the new Las Vegas Marathon a year ago. Organizers had hoped to see a world record in the near future and offered a $2.5 million bonus for doing so, which would have been the highest prize money ever paid in running history. But there is not much left of these dreams now.
Kenya’s Joseph Kahugu won the race on Sunday with 2:16:43, which meant that the winning time was almost five minutes slower than last year’s by Stephen Kiogora (2:11:56). Also, the prize purse was much lower: Kahugu got $15,000 for first place, in comparison to Kiogora’s $50,000 from 2005. Still, Kahugu will come home with an extra $50,000, because he overtook all the elite women, who had started the race earlier than the men. This additional challenge was a close one. With only 800 meters to go, women’s winner Jemima Jelagat (Kenya/2:35:25) was overtaken by Kahugu.
Organizers of the Dallas Marathon had the same idea, which seems to become more popular among marathons of the second and third category. Again it was the men’s winner who collected the bonus, which was $25,000. Moses Kororia (Kenya) passed women’s winner Svetlana Ponomarenko (Russia) shortly before 39K. While Kororia ran 2:12:04, Ponomarenko clocked 2:29:55. Both achieved new course records and won $10,000 for their victories.
