Athletics: Bekele, Johnson and Ethiopia Golden at World Cross

Day 1

Junior Women Lead USA Efforts in Brussels with 4th

By Charlie Mahler, Running USA wire

BRUSSELS, Belgium - (March 20, 2004) - Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele won his sixth World Cross title and brought himself half-way to an unprecedented third straight World Cross "double" with his victory in the Men's 4K event, while Australia's Benita Johnson won her country's first-ever World Cross medal and established herself as an Olympic medal contender by winning the Women's 8K event at the 32nd IAAF World Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

Bekele, the World Champion at 10,000 meters, and Johnson, a bronze medalist at the last World Half-Marathon Championships, each used storming final laps of the muddy 2K circuit at Brussels' Parc de Laeken to seal their victories. Bekele, soaked by a driving rain, broke away from countryman, and eventual silver medalist, Gebre Gebremariam to win his third straight World Cross 4K title in 11:31. Gebremariam ran 11:36. The expected challenges from Kenyan's Abraham Chebii and John Kibowen and Kenyan-turned Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the former Stephen Cherono, never fully materialized.

Johnson for her part accomplished what USA's Deena Drossin could not in last year's championships in Switzerland - she broke free from Ethiopia's Werknesh Kidane, the 2003 World Cross Champion, with a powerful attack at the start of her final circuit of the sodden course, to win in 27:17. Kidane ended up third, in 27:34, behind teammate Ejagayhu Dibaba who ran 27:29.

Johnson, who finished 4th in the 4K event at World Cross in 2003, emerges as a serious contender at 10,000 meters in Athens with her victory. The 24-year-old, who plans to compete in the Women's 4K on Sunday, could become only the second women to accomplish that double. Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan, wife of Johnson's coach Nick Bideau, accomplished the feat at the 1998 World Championships in Marrakech.

Bekele, an established master of such doubles having won the 4K and 12K titles at the last two World Cross Country Championships plus the Junior Men's title in 2001, lead Ethiopia's 4K men's squad to the team title with his run, one of the three team titles the East African nation swept in today's competition. Bekele's 4K squad tallied 17 points to defeat Qatar and Kenya who had 39 and 52, respectively. The Ethiopian Junior Women won with a perfect 10 point score as they grabbed the top four places in the race. Ethiopia's senior women edged Kenya 26-30 in the 8K.

The American effort was paced by its Junior Women's squad, which matched the country's best-ever finish with a fourth place result. The pack-running team established itself well in the early-going - leaving the Ethiopians and Kenyans to themselves yet running near the front of the "rest of the world" peloton - but couldn't match the strong middle lap racing of the bronze medal-winning Japanese team.

"We all stuck together and it was awesome," said top USA finisher Amber Harper, as freshman at Brigham Young University. "There were a lot of people yelling at us that Japan was the team right in front of us. I know I passed one of their gals towards the end."

Harper finished 24th in 21:58. She was followed closely by Allison Costello, 30th in 22:10, Amanda Trotter, 31st in 22:11, Jennifer Barringer, 35th in 22:19, Kathleen Trotter, 36th in 22:20 and Brittany Brockman, 62nd in 23:04.

Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia won the Junior Women's race in 20:48 for 6K.

The USA Senior Women's team, medalists at the last two World Championships, finished a surprising fifth considering it ran with only a single returning member from either of those medal-winning squads. Great Britain took the bronze medal behind Ethiopia and Kenya with 74 points. France was fourth with 90, while the young Americans tallied 98 and the Australians had 99.

"I really didn't know what to expect," offered top USA finisher Katie O'Neill who finished 15th in 28:37. "It's sort of crazy with the crowd and the mud, and I couldn't get a sense of pace, so I decided to put as much effort into it as I could, and luckily, things worked out. I just kept looking up and tried to pass more people as I went along."

Kathy Newberry finished 25th in 28:56, Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor, a member of last year's bronze medal team, was 27th in 28:57, Anne Marie Schwabe was 31st in 29:05, Laura O'Neill was 38th in 29:27 and Molly Austin was 79th in 31:00.

Though the spread between the first and fourth members of the USA Men's 4K team - the scorers - was a mere twelve seconds, that squad could only muster seventh place team finish. 2003 USA 4K Champion and 2004 USA 12K runner-up Robert Gary led the team with a 33rd place finish in 12:12. Team USA Minnesota's Luke Watson was 36th in 12:17. Sandu Rebenciuc was 46th in 12:23, Jared Cordes was 48th in 12:24, Ian Connor was 58th in 12:29 and Isaiah Festa was 60th in 12:30.

"I think all of us thought we'd finish a couple notches higher," Watson said. "No one really blew up today, it didn't seem. I think we all had middle-of-the-road races. We needed a "low stick" and we didn't have that today. We had great depth today, we just didn't do as well as we would've hoped."

Day 2

Ethiopians End Kenyan Cross Country Reign with Sweep
Bekele Completes Unprecedented Triple-Double

By Charlie Mahler, Running USA wire

BRUSSELS, Belgium - (March 21, 2004) - Consider it fair warning if the sun doesn't rise tomorrow morning. Yesterday's certainties - death, taxes, bad music on the radio - may no longer be so tomorrow.

The Kenyans, after all, are no longer the lords of cross country running.

Kenenisa Bekele, extending to three his unprecedented string of individual doubles with a 35:53 clocking over Brussels' sticky 12K course, led Ethiopia to the Senior Men's 12K team title at the World Cross Country Championships on Sunday, emphatically terminating Kenya's eighteen-year string of victories in the men's 12K event with a one-two-three sweep of the individual medals. Bekele, who won the 4K event yesterday, was joined by teammates Gebre Gebremariam and Sileshi Sihine on the medals podium.

Bekele's win earned him his seventh World Cross gold. Gebremariam took his second silver of the weekend with 36:10 and Sihine grabbed the bronze with 36:11. Yibetal Admassu sealed Ethiopian potentially sea-changing triumph by finishing 8th in 36:52. The team scored 14 points.

Kenya, which had not lost the premier men's event at World Cross since 1985 (also to Ethiopia), earned the silver with a 30 point score. World 5000 meter champion Eliud Kipchoge led Kenya with a fourth place finish. Ethiopia's neighbor Eritrea was third with 66.

Kenya's defeat did not come as a complete shock to close observers of distance running. Ethiopia had made gold medal inroads in other World Cross events in recent years. Kenya had already lost the steeplechase title - the track event most synonymous with Kenyan domination - at the World Track and Field Championships last summer, although in that case the East African nation could take some solace in the fact that the Qatari winner of the event was, until a few weeks before the event, a Kenyan citizen.

Whether Ethiopia's victory is the dawn of a new dynasty or confirmation of a two-superpower dynamic in the endurance wars remains to be seen. At the end of the Brussels championships, though, Ethiopia fly home with five of the six team golds, four of the six individual golds and 14 of the 18 individual medals on offer.

For the United States teams, the second day of the championships was a slightly dimmer version of the first day's modest results. Shalane Flanagan, a junior at the University of North Carolina was a bright spot as the top USA placer at the Championships with a 14th place finish in the Women's 4K event. The USA's Women's 4K team placed 7th, as did the Junior Men's squad. The Senior Men's 12K team placed 11th. For the first time since 1999 the Americans will return home without any harrier hardware.

"Those ladies are fierce competitors and I tried to come in with that mentality," Flanagan, who clocked 13:34, said. "This race helps me realize how great the world's top runners are and how much harder I have to train."

Behind the 2004 USA 4K champ was former Stanford star Lauren Fleshman 24th in 13:56, Christin Wurth 43rd in 14:21, Missy Buttry 60th in 14:33, Sarah Hann 64th in 14:38 and Janet Trujillo 77th in 14:57.

Edith Masai of Kenya won her third straight Women's 4K title with a 13:07 clocking. World 5000 meter champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia was second in 13:09, teammate Teyba Erkesso was third in 13:11. Ethiopia edged Kenya 19-21 for the team gold, while surprising Canada took the bronze with 87. The USA tallied 141 for seventh.

High school senior Ryan Deak of Aurora, Colorado led the USA Junior Men's squad with a 34th in 26:27 finish in 8K. Deak was followed closely by Stanford freshman Forrest Tahdooahnippah 37th in 26:29. Joshua McDougal was 49th in 26:50, USA Junior Champion John Janson was 55th in 27:03, Trent Hoerr was 60th in 27:08 and Ian Burrell was 81st in 27:42.

"It went perfect," said Deak. "I got a great start. I didn't feel like I was going fast at all, but I was ahead of some Kenyans, so I relaxed about the next 100 yards and I relaxed up the hill and then relaxed to the first K point. About the 6K mark I got a horrible cramp in the side of my stomach and that totally killed my last loop."

Kenya won its lone team gold in the tightly fought Junior Men's event with 20 points, Ethiopia was second with 25 and Uganda was third 33. Meba Tadesse won the inidividual crown in 24:01, Uganda's Boniface Kiprop was second in 24:03 and Ernest Meli Kimeli was third in 24:16. The USA tallied 175 for their 7th place finish.

Olympian Abdi Abdirahman led the USA's Senior Men's 12K squad with a 34th place finish in 38:08. American 5000 meter record-holder Bob Kennedy was second for the Americans in 44th with 38:28. Richie Brinker of Team USA Michigan, who picked his way through the field in defiance of World Cross convention, was 51st in 38:36, Dave Davis was 82nd in 39:30, Nolan Swanson was 93rd in 40:03 and Joshua Eberly was 108th in 41:03. The team tallied 211 points for 11th.

"This was not a good day for us Americans at all," Abdirahman said. "This is a real cross country course. This course shows your strengths and weaknesses."

"I didn't feel good. I never did," USA 12K champion Kennedy observed. "I felt decent warming up, but I never felt right. For at least three kilometers I was in the position I wanted to be, with the idea that I would start picking through the pack, but I went the other way."

The 2005 World Cross Country Championships are set for St. Etienne-St. Galmier, France on March 19 and 20.

IAAF World Cross Country Championships - Brussels, Belgium, March 20-21, 2004
Saturday
Senior Women's 8K
Senior Men's 4K
Junior Women's 6K
Sunday
Senior Men's 12K
Senior Women's 4K
Junior Men's 8K

Complete individual and team results at: www.iaaf.org.

More Team USA coverage and quotes at: www.usatf.org.