Posted: December 11, 2005

Athletics: Sixth Win For Lebed, First For Kiplagat At European Cross Country Championships

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

TILBURG, Netherlands – Sergey Lebed of Ukraine and Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat captured commanding wins this afternoon at the 12th SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

Overtaking Spaniard Alberto Garcia 25 minutes in the race, the 30-year-old Lebed captured his fifth straight continental title, and his sixth overall. Despite his 12-second margin of victory, Lebed insisted that there was nothing simple about his win.

“It was a very difficult race,” he said, “one of the toughest I’ve had in a long time. I just wanted to go out there and be near the front, but not too quickly. And then just wait for the finishing kick.”

That’s exactly what he did a few seconds after the bell sounded for the final lap, when he broke from Garcia.

“I was concentrating on that precise point, when I would make the move,” said Lebid, adding that he couldn’t underestimate Garcia’s aggressive front-running. “When training, I knew that there would be some strong Spanish runners here. He’s the European 5000m champion, so of course I had to be careful of him.”

He covered the 9840 meter course in 27:09, 12 seconds clear of Garcia, who in turn topped Frenchman Driss Maazouzi (27:26) who repeated as bronze medallist.

With four runners in the top-ten, France easily took their third straight team title, tallying just 21 points. Only Portugal’s 20 point tally at the inaugural edition in 1994 has ever been better. Led by Garcia and de la Ossa (ninth), Spain finished second with 64 points, with a surprise Ukraine squad taking the bronze with 71 points. Italy, last year’s silver medallists, were fourth with 75 points.

With a brilliantly executed tactical performance, Lornah Kiplagat thrilled the enthusiastic crowd with her dominating victory in her first-ever appearance at these championships. It was also the first-ever title for the Netherlands.

Making her move midway through the final lap, Kiplagat pulled away for a 19:55 win over the 6.5Km course, five seconds ahead of Germany’s Sabrina Mockenhaupt.

“I had to play on some tactics,” said Kiplagat, dismissing a suggestion that her victory was an easy one. “It wasn’t just like snapping my fingers. I had to work hard for it.”

They counted on me and inspired me,” Kiplagat said of the crowd lining the course. “I wanted to give something back.”

Mockenhaupt, who lead during the race’s middle stages, held off quick-closing Swede Johanna Nilsson to finish second. Remarkably, it was the first ever medal for Germany in the women’s senior race.

“I’m just really, really happy,” said Mockenhaupt, the German national champion. “It is my first international medal. It really went well.”

Nilsson, who attends Northern Arizona University, said she didn’t decide on whether she would race in Tilburg until a week after her victory at the NCAA championships late last month, and added that she was merely looking for a top-10 or top-20 finish.

Junior Races

With his narrow 18:41 to 18:42 victory over Briton Andy Vernon, Hungary’s Barnabas Bene became just the second to successfully defend the men’s junior title. In a tight race, Dusan Markesevic from Serbia and Montenegro was third, credited with the same time as Vernon. With 60 points, Poland captured the team title, collecting their first ever junior medal. Great Britain moved up a notch from last year’s finish to take silver with 68 points, edging Romania’s 71 point tally.

In the women’s race, a front-running strategy for Romania’s Ancuta Bobocel paid off, propelling her to a two-second victory over Emily Pidgeon of Great Britain. The 18-year-old Bobocel, who was second at these championships a year ago, jumped to the lead from the gun and stayed there en route to a 15:23 performance over the 4830m course.

Pidgeon, the 16-year-old European junior champion at 5000 metres, fought on after letting Bobocel build a small gap, but couldn’t make up the deficit, and finished two seconds back. Susan Kuijken produced the first Dutch surprise of the day, with a strong finish over the final kilometre to finish third and claim the first Dutch medal since Gert-Jan Liefers won the inaugural men’s junior title in 1997.

Pidgeon, backed up by Morag Maclarty’s sixth place finish and Stephanie Twell’s seventh, cruised to the team title with 30 points, comfortably ahead of defending champion Romania’s 49. Russia, with 60 points, repeated as bronze medallist. This was the fourth overall team title for the British junior women.