Saif Saaeed Shaheen doubled, Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar did not compete against each other and each won, and Kenenisa Bekele had to accept defeat at the end of the season—these were the highlights of the IAAF World Cup in Athens this weekend.
On Saturday, Shaheen won the 5,000 meters after a tactical start. The former Kenyan, who has run for Qatar since 2003, broke the field open with a surge at 3,000m, and then eased off the pace. After the rest of the field caught up, the steeplechase world record holder sprinted away again 700 meters before the finish line, this time holding his advantage to the finish, clocking 13:35.30 minutes. Mike Kigen (Kenya/13:36.19) and Matt Tegenkamp (USA/13:36.83) came close at the end, but couldn’t threaten Shaheen. The following day, Shaheen won the 3,000m steeplechase in 8:19.09 minutes ahead of Kenyan Paul Kipsiele Koech (8:19.37). Shaheen plans to run both distances at the World Championships in Osaka next summer.
There was a big surprise in the men’s 3,000m—Kenenisa Bekele couldn’t match the finishing speed of Australia’s Craig Mottram, who took the lead with 300 meters to go. Mottram won clearly in 7:32.19, well ahead of Bekele Ethiopian (7:36.25), who was not feeling fresh after a busy Golden League schedule. “It was a very hard race,” Bekele said. “It’s very difficult to run without a pace maker.”
Because of the World Cup format, which doesn’t allow more than one runner per country in an event, the two Ethiopian women stars, Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba, were in separate races. In the 5,000m, Defar, took the lead right after the start and kept it throughout. The world record holder clocked 14:39.11 minutes. Well back in second was Russian Liliya Shobukhova (15:05.33). In the 3,000m, Dibaba used similar front-running tactics to win in 8:33.78. Lidia Chojecka (Poland) finished second in 8:39.69.
Quiet Week in European Road Running
In a 10-kilometer-race in Prague, Kenyan Wilson Kiprotich Kebenei won in 28:05 minutes, bettering the two-year-old course record of Haile Gebrselassie by two seconds. Geoffrey Kipngeno (Kenya) was second in 28:45, followed by Sergey Lebid (Ukraine/29:02).
The Chicago Marathon announced the addition of Kenyans Robert K. Cheruiyot and Benjamin Maiyo to the elite field of the race on October 22. They will meet defending champion Felix Limo (Kenya).
Cheruiyot, 27, most recently won the Boston Marathon on April 17, setting a new course record of 2:07:14. The victory marked the second Boston win for the Kenyan, following his 2003 victory in 2:10:11. Cheruiyot is currently tied with fellow Kenyan Felix Limo for first place on the World Marathon Majors leader board. With Limo also competing in Chicago, a win for either athlete would mark a clear leader for the series as it heads into 2007.
Maiyo, 27, placed second behind Cheruiyot at Boston this spring in 2:08:21. He set his personal record (2:07:09) with a second-place finish at last year’s Chicago Marathon. You can follow Maiyo’s preparations for Chicago at chasingKIMBIA.
