Posted: March 21, 2005

Athletics: U.S. Women Earn Short-Course Bronze

Ethiopia Out-Duels Kenya in World Cross Showdown

By Charlie Mahler, Running USA wire

St. Galmier, FRANCE - (March 20, 2005) - At the 33rd IAAF World Cross Country Championships, the Kenyans and Ethiopians contested their annual dual meet - the two nations won all six of the meet's gold and silver team medals, and all but one of the individual ones - and the rest of the world had the opportunity to run for a bronze medal.

The USA's Senior women's short course team earned the available medal in the event's final race, joining the bronze medal winning nations of Portugal, Qatar and Japan as the best-of-the-rest in the competitive world of long distance running.

The American medal-winning effort was balanced team affair led by rising star Lauren Fleshman, 11th in 13:44 for the 4196 meter course; Blake Russell, 15th in 13:57; 2005 USA champion Shalane Flanagan, 20th in 14:05 and Olympian Shayne Culpepper, 21st in 14:06. Non-scorers Amy Mortimer and Missy Buttry were 52nd and 90th, respectively.

This is the first U.S. women's short course team medal-winning performance since 1998 in Marrakech, Morocco, when Team USA won the bronze. Team USA women - led by Deena Drossin (now Kastor) - also won team World XC silver and bronze medals in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

"We did a great job out there. This group ran with a lot of integrity. Everybody said what they wanted to do for this week from way back at U.S. Nationals. We thought we had a chance to win a medal and before the race, we all talked about our goals and it's such a mature group of women. Everyone ran with one goal in mind and that speaks volumes about this team. I had a really strong kick home and passed some people the last 50 meters to get 11th," said Fleshman, a Stanford grad.

The USA scored 67 points to easily outdistance Russia who tallied an even 100 for fourth. Ethiopia edged Kenya by a single point, 18-19 to win the last of its four gold team medals at the meet. The Ethiopians swept the Senior events at the meet; Kenya won the two Junior races.

Most remarkable in the celebration of East African dominance was Kenenisa Bekele's double win, his fourth straight at World Cross, that came in the wake of the recent death of his fiancée Alem Techale and an uncharacteristic, if understandable, run of sub-par racing afterward. Some of the sport's close observers thought 2005 might be the best opportunity for Bekele's rivals to stand on the top step of a World Cross podium.

On the hard French turf, though, Bekele, 22, looked very much the young champion of old, winning Saturday's short course event by a solid five seconds over Kenya's Abraham Chebii and then zooming away from his final long-course challenger Eliud Kipchoge at the start of the final 2K circuit to complete an unprecedented fourth short/long double, take his ninth World Cross gold and earn his tenth World Cross individual medal overall.

Bekele, the 2004 Olympic 10,000 meter gold medalist, is one victory away from tying John Ngugi and Paul Tergat's record for five World Cross long-course titles. Arguably, the 5000m and 10,000m world record holder is already the greatest athlete ever in the sport.

Almost lost in Bekele's triumph's was countrywoman Tirunesh Dibaba who turned the first Senior women's double since Sonia O'Sullivan accomplished the feat in Marrakech, Morocco in 1998, the first year of the two-distance format at World Cross. Dibaba, the world indoor record holder at 5000 meters, outran Kenya's Alice Trimbilili to win the long-course race on Saturday in 26:34. On Sunday, she out-dueled compatriot Werknesh Kidane, the 2003 long-course World Champion, 13:15 to 13:16 in a homestretch battle.

U.S. champion Dathan Ritzenhein, the most talked-about American leading into the event after a two impressive runs earlier in the winter in Europe - including a cross country win at the Reebok Cross Country Challenge in Belfast - finished 63rd in 38:46 in the 12K long-course race as the third American.

Ritzenhein attributed his poor performance to a blister caused by a new pair of racing spikes, that made footfalls difficult on the course's uneven surface. His Senior men's long-course team finished 13th with 262 points. University of Wisconsin red-shirt freshman Matt Withrow - running in USA kit before ever running in a Badger uniform - finished 60th in 38:41 for the 12,020 meter course.

Galen Rupp, the U.S. Junior record holder for 5000 meters and the USA's top Junior hope, finished 20th in the Junior men's race which opened the Sunday running. He led the USA Juniors to a 7th place finish.

The United States team effort in Saturday's competition was highlighted by the fourth place finish of the Junior women's team and the fifth place finish of the Senior women in the long-course (8K) event. The latter tied fourth-place Japan with 122 points, but fell to fifth on the fourth-runner tie-breaker. The Senior men's 4K team finished 13th.

Top individual performances on Saturday were Jorge Torres's 13th place, thru-the-field finish in 11:58 for 4196 meters in the short course event and veteran Colleen De Reuck's 13th place run in 27:51 in the 8108 meters long course event. Lindsey Scherf was the top USA Junior woman, 18th in 22:12 for 6152 meters.

Conditions during the weekend's festival of soft-surface endurance running were hot and dryly sunny. The horse track course, overlooked by the picturesque town of St. Galmier, featured steep 12 foot high mounds, log obstacle jumps, dirt berms and a 50 meter deep mud stretch where infield turf was tilled and drenched. The efforts made the ostensibly flat course a topographical challenge from the knees on down and harkened back to earlier World and International Cross Country courses. Officials announced the Sunday crowd at 28,000.

Next year, Fukuoka, Japan will host the final two-day, World Championship on April 1-2. The IAAF will return to a one-day event with a single, long-course event for Senior runners. The two-day format that included 4K events for Senior men and women, which began in 1998, never attracted the sport's top middle distance runners as hoped. Sites for the 2007-08 events have not been announced, but IAAF President Lamine Diack noted that Kenya and the United States have expressed interest in the event. Mombasa is the likely Kenyan host city, while Dade City, Florida's Little Everglades Steeplechase Course is the USA site showing interest in the event, according to USA Track & Field president Bill Roe.

For complete results, go to: IAAF.org.

For U.S. athlete quotes and more, go to: USATF.org.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services Director
385 Oak View Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93111

(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 967-5958
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
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