It took the last running of the short race to finally draw a miler as a medallist. Morocco's Adil Kaouch, who took silver at 1500m in Helsinki, announced after the race that "I regret that there will not be forever a short race."
Kaouch stuck with the leading pack throughout the race (he was placed sixteenth at the first two kilometre checkpoints, just a second off the lead,) and had the closing speed to vault from eighth with one kilometre remaining to third at the finish.
"With this being the last year of the short course, I was excited to be in the top three. When I ran in Moscow (Kaouch was 7th in the 3000m in 7:48.01) I got a good result, so I was encouraged for running here."
Good cross means good summer
"Of course since I started athletics, I've always run cross country. I really like it, and I've had good results. Of course, I've had my bad years. But the years when I have good results in cross country are the years when I have good results on the track."
Kaouch's results bear him out. After placing 19th and 10th as a junior in '97 and '98, respectively, then won the 1998 World Junior championships at 1500m. After making his senior championship debut at the Maebashi World Indoors, placing seventh, he made his first of (so far) five appearances in the senior short race in 1999, placing eleventh. That summer he made his first international splash in the senior 1500m. In the 1999 World Championships final in Seville, Kaouch took the role of setting a fast early pace for his teammate, Hicham El Guerrouj, setting up El Guerrouj's championship record 3:27.65 victory.
2000 proved the link between Kaouch's summer track performances and his winter preparation in cross and indoor track. After not running in Villamoura, in Sydney he failed to advance from his heat in the 1500m, and El Guerrouj was eventually upset in a sprint finish by Kenyan Noah Ngeny. In 2001 Kaouch was back to the World Indoor and World Cross double, taking fifth in the Lisbon 1500m final and eleventh in the Ostend short race. Back to his 1999 form, Kaouch was a finalist again in Edmonton in 2001, and again set up a fast early pace to pull El Guerrouj away to victory.
Lean years
There were more "bad years" in 2002 and 2003, as surgery on both knees forced Kaouch to take an extended break from both track and the short race. When he returned in 2004, he took tenth in the short race at Brussels, then ninth in the Athens 1500m final.
2005 brought reward for his years toiling in the shadow of the great El Guerrouj. After yet another eleventh-place finish in the St.Galmier short race, Kaouch was there in the homestretch of the Helsinki 1500m final, challenging eventual winner Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain in the homestretch before settling for silver.
Even with no Olympic or World Championship 1500m final this summer, Kaouch was one of several athletes who pushed particularly hard to do well in this, the last running of the short race. "I prepared to be in the top three or five," he said, "and thanks to God I am here" in third. This, together with his Moscow result three weeks ago, suggests that Kaouch is well-positioned for an impressive summer.
Parker Morse for the IAAF

It took the last running of the short race to finally draw a miler as a medallist. Morocco's Adil Kaouch, who took silver at 1500m in Helsinki, announced after the race that "I regret that there will not be forever a short race."

World Cross - A miler medals at last

If the point needed demonstrating at all, Team USA showed in the last ever IAAF World Cross Country short race men's race (Sat 1 April) what can be achieved with a little bit of forethought and planning.
Led home by a buccaneering run from a resurgent Adam Goucher, who placed sixth, the Americans claimed fifth place in the team event.
"When you say something, you hope it happens," said 31-year-old Goucher.
"I was looking at the start list and I said to myself to run my race, and let it unfold, because people will die, and I just kept running hard."
"I felt good out there, especially when running against the fastest guys in the world. This was just awesome."
Goucher announced himself on the international cross country scene six years ago when he managed to win both the 4km and 12km races at the United States trials. 
Goucher also won the 5000m race at the 2000 US Olympic trials, but the intervening years have not been kind to Goucher, who has struggled with injuries.
His return to form has coincided with a move to Oregon where he is now coached by Alberto Salazar, the past winner of the New York and Boston Marathons who, 24-years-ago when these championships were staged in Rome, won the silver medal over 12km behind Ethiopia's Mohammed Kedir.
Thus Goucher was able to borrow from his coach's experiences of mixing it with the Africans. And to good effect.
The Americans have also made this meeting something of a family affair. Goucher's wife, Kara, races in the women's 4km event today Sunday, together with Sara Hall, the wife of Ryan Hall. &gt;&gt;UPDATE: Kara Goucher finished 21st, and Sara Hall was 26th&lt;&lt;
Following Adam Goucher's lead on Saturday, Ryan also managed to place in the top-20 over 4km, although he will not be so well placed to watch his wife racing, since he is also entered for the men's 12km event later in the day (Ryan Hall finished 43rd). In the 4km event, Jorge Torres (27th) and Daniel Lincoln (28th) closed in for the US men's team, which opted to target its better runners at the short race on this occasion.
"I wanted to double in order to get some experience running at this level," said Hall, the winner of the Chiba International race earlier in the cross country season. 
"I am not thinking too much about the 12k, but rather the 4k, especially with that team as strong as it is."
The Americans also seemed to find the switchbacks of the Seaside Park course to their liking. "It's fast, as advertised," Goucher said. "It's a beautiful course and I really like it.
"It is a smooth, flowing course. It's not a bang-your-body-up type of course, but there are spots where it's a bit bumpy. It feels like a fast, grass track."
Hall agreed. "This is a course where you're gonna have to get out fast with the narrow spots. If you get stuck behind, it's going to be hard to make up ground."
Goucher's performance here suggests he will have his best track season for six years. "I feel like I am in the best shape I've ever been in. I feel confident in where I am in my training."
Steven Downes for the IAAF
(With thanks to Paul Merca, USATF)

If the point needed demonstrating at all, Team USA showed in the last ever IAAF World Cross Country short race men's race (Sat 1 April) what can be achieved with a little bit of forethought and planning.

USA benefits from a little planning

Fukuoka, JapanIt was looking so good for European Cross Country Champion Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands for approximately 7.7km of the women’s 8km long race run on a chilly afternoon on the wind swept Fukuoka plain which faces the Genkai Sea. 
On a picturesque course lined with blossoming Cherry trees, it looked like it was going to be a 'gun to tape' win for Kiplagat, a former Kenyan who became Dutch in 2003. Kiplagat who had won in Japan, taking the Osaka marathon title in 2002, and is the reigning Rotterdam champion, has always expressed her preference for road and track running over cross country. However, her performance today on top of her European title last December, must now dispel any lack of belief in her ability at the discipline.
But the task for Kiplagat always seemed to be too great, even when she passed the bell with a three second lead. For the Dutch woman, who was sixth in 2004 at the long race, her only previous outing at the World Cross, was being pursued by reigning World short and long race champion, Tirunesh Dibaba, who headed a green vested posse composed, at one moment, of the entire Ethiopian squad. In fact after the last two Kenyans (Evelyne Wambui and Alice Chelangat) were dropped at the end of the second lap, the only other serious contender for the medals was Australia’s Benita Johnson, the 2004 long race World Cross champion.
Today's&nbsp;outing was a very simple affair. The gun sounded, and after less than 1000m had been run under the tentative lead of Tanzania’s Pascalina Bombo, it was Kiplagat who hit the front. Though&nbsp;never away totally clear, she was not to be headed again until coming off the final hill, and turning into the finishing straight with about 300m of the 8km race remaining.
Entering the final lap, the order had been Kiplagat, followed by three Ethiopians in close order, Dibaba, Meselech Melkamu, like Dibaba a former World Junior champion, and Wuder Yimer, with Johnson still in tow. Just prior to the bell, a fourth Ethiopian had been dropped (Meserat Tufa), and she was to be overtaken by Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi for 6th place by the finish of the race.
Kiplagat still looked very strong, and continued to push the pace but Dibaba was never adrift by more than three seconds, and we always sensed that this story was not yet closed.
Attacking the last hill at a furious pace, Dibaba closed on Kiplagat by the top, and on the down slope passed Kiplagat, and turning into the straight quickly broke clear, consigning Kiplagat to silver.
Dibaba, retained her title, crossing in 25:21, with Kiplagat five seconds behind, with Melkamu in third (25:38). Johnson finished well in fourth (25:43) to split up the African-born finish, ahead of Yimer.&nbsp; 
"I knew that I could win in the last lap, with about a half-lap left," confirmed Dibaba.&nbsp;"I knew I had better finishing speed, so I was not demoralized to see her taking the lead. I wasn't feeling very well. I had some stitches, and that was the reason (for letting her hold the lead). I won with God's will, and it was very hard...I hope to take many more medals in cross country."
Kiplagat in second was delighted. “This was entirely unexpected for me. I nearly won. This is an marvellous result for me."
“I thought if I could get away before those last hills I might have been able to win it but when we got there I had no energy.” "I had a lot of fun today, and I like the idea of going back to my roots to do it again (Mombasa 2007). Kenya is my birthplace, but I am married to Holland. The Kenyan fans today were yelling to me, 'Come on, our child, we want to see you win.' I want to go to Mombasa and support them as they supported me.
For the best Japanese, Fukushi, who led her team to an unexpected bronze (80pts), she was happy."I didn't expect sixth, so maybe God helped me as well."
Ethiopia cleaned up the gold with ease (1, 3, 5, 7) by packing inside the top-8 with a total of 16pts, and Kenya got the silver (39pts).
Chris Turner for the IAAF

Fukuoka, Japan – It was looking so good for European Cross Country Champion Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands for approximately 7.7km of the women’s 8km Long Race on a chilly afternoon on the wind swept Fukuoka plain which faces the Genkai Sea.

Women's Long Race, Fukuoka - So near, but yet so far for Kiplagat, as Dibaba sprints clear  

Kenenisa Bekele duly claimed the IAAF World Cross Country Short Race&nbsp;title for the fifth time here on a chilly afternoon at the windswept Seaside Park in Fukuoka, winning a 4km race run at a fearsome pace from the gun.
As his rivals shoved and tripped their way around the fast, undulating two circuits, Ethiopia's Bekele, winner of this title each year since 2002, always looked in control, and he drew clear of the rest with a withering piece of acceleration just before entering the long final straight to cross the finish line in 10:54 - the equivalent of a sub-13:30 5000m clocking. Yet it looked far quicker than that.
This is to be the last time that the 4km race is staged as part of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, but Bekele's rivals ensured that the event was as competitive as it could be, with just 18 seconds covering the first dozen finishers.
The silver medal was won by Isaac Songok, of Kenya, who finished one second, behind Bekele, with the bronze medal going to the fast-finishing Moroccan, Adil Kaouch (10:57). 
Benjamin Limo, the 5000m World champion and winner of this title in 1999, placed fourth, good enough to help Kenya deny Ethiopia the team title, with Morocco in third.
The outcome of the team race may well have been determined within the first kilometre, when Sileshi Sihine stumbled and fell when disputing the lead with his Ethiopian team mate and the Kenyans.
Such was the break-neck pace of the race that Sihine, the World 5000 and 10,000m silver medallist in Helsinki last year and one of the biggest threats to Bekele's chances of a remarkable fifth double victory at these championships, lost possibly 20 positions, and was unable to ever get back into contention for the individual medals. 
He eventually placed a very creditable 12th, and was the third Ethiopian to finish, though with Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam coming home in 30th, the second team title of the day was wrapped up by Kenya, who closed in their four scorers (Songok, Limo, Augustine Limo and Edwin Soi) in the first eight.
As the pack passed the lap counter for the bell, they were led by Australia's Craig Mottram in 5:26, with just two seconds covering the first 20 runners, who included four Qataris and four Moroccans, although Kaouch was no better than 16th at this stage. 
Bekele looked to stumble for a moment as the runners passed the granstand, the defending champion only averting calamity by reaching out and balancing himself with a hand on Soi's back.
The bell was signal to the Kenyans Songok, Limo and Choge, the new Commonwealth 5000m champion, to come together at the front on the course's stiff climb. Bekele, balanced once more, positioned himself in behind them.
Into the last kilometre, and the Kenyan teamwork had still not managed to lose Bekele's limpet-like presence in their group. At which point, the Ethiopian sidestepped like a rugby player and as they approached the switchback hills towards the end of the lap, he motored away from the rest.
Only Songok managed to stay anywhere near to contact, while Kaouch, silver medallist at 1500m in Helsinki last August, showed his track speed to good effect in the closing stages as he chased home the front two.
But neither ever looked like catching Bekele, who looked in formidable shape ready for Sunday's 12km long race, and possibly his 10th World Cross title. Afterwards, the champion admitted that this had, indeed, been his toughest 4km race. "We have never before finished so close together," he said. "None of the victories have ever been easy, but today's was the toughest.
"The course was very flat and fast, and it was very windy, so it was hard to drop off the other competitors," said Bekele, who now has won 17 World gold medals on the track, indoors and at cross-country.
"As I said before the race, I knew this would be the hardest race of the weekend, because there were a lot of competitors here wo were well prepared."
For his part, Songok was delighted with his silver medal, one better than his bronze from 12 months earlier. "I am really happy," he said. "I tried my best here, I was really going for gold, but I enjoyed racing with Bekele, and siver was a good result for me."
Bekele seemed to confirm this, admitting that he afforded hmself a couple of glances in the closing stages to check on the position of his rival. "I was worried that he might pass me," Bekele said. "I clouldn't afford to hold anything back for tomorrow."
But, just in case any of the competitors in Sunday's classic long race think that they may have an advantage over the champion as he seeks a "perfect 10", with his 10th senior World Cross Country title in five years, Bekele added, "I am confident that, with my team, we can get a good result tomorrow."
Steven Downes for the IAAF

Kenenisa Bekele duly claimed the IAAF World Cross Country Short Race title for the fifth time here on a chilly afternoon at the windswept Seaside Park in Fukuoka, winning a 4km race run at a fearsome pace from the gun.

Men's Short Race, Fukuoka - Nine down, one to go. 

The World Cross Country Championships won't be in Kenya for another year, but you'd be forgiven for thinking this afternoon's first race in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Seaside Park was actually in Mombasa, particularly with the full set of Kenyan flags at the medal ceremony.
Kenya's perfect score in the junior women's race was sealed by the completion of the second lap of the 2K course. Emmy Chepkirui, Pauline Korikwiang, Veronica Wanjiru and Mercy Kosgei pulled away from Ethiopia's Workitu Ayanu, the last to hold on to the Kenyans'&nbsp;pace, to sort out the medals among themselves.
It was Wanjiru, the 2005 runner-up and pre-race favorite, and Korikwiang, 2005 world youth silver medalist at 3000m, who were strongest, pushing the pace into the third lap. Chepkirui, running barefoot, and Kosgei fell back in turn as Korikwiang pushed the pace, with Wanjiru following closely.
As they turned the last corner, Korikwiang and Wanjiru remained side by side, and they remained together with little to separate them through the finish line. Korikwiang was awarded the victory, with Wanjiru in the second spot for the second consecutive year. Both athletes were given the same time.
"When the Ethiopians were with us, they pushed us," said Wanjiru. Her last-lap push might have been motivated by a feeling of vulnerability, however; she blamed her loss on a knee injury which hampered her speed. Korikwiang, until today the underdog in all the pair's previous meetings, professed confidence: "I was not surprised to finish ahead of Veronica," she said.
After Kosgei and Chepkirui, in third and fourth, respectively, Ethiopia's Belainesh Zemedkun Gebre came up on Ayanu, and Ethiopia's fifth, sixth and seventh places put them securely in second place. &nbsp; The host Japanese team finished in a pack inside the top twenty to secure third place.
Parker Morse for the IAAF

The World Cross Country Championships won't be in Kenya for another year, but you'd be forgiven for thinking this afternoon's first race in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Seaside Park was actually in Mombasa, particularly with the full set of Kenyan flags at the medal ceremony.

Women's Junior Race, Fukuoka - Kenyan Sweep

Men's Junior Race Biographies

Men's Long Race Biographies

Women's Long Race Biographies

Women's Short Race Biographies

Women's Junior Race Biographies

Long Race

Earlier today, the IAAF Press Conference for the 34th IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in the JAL Resort Sea Hawk Hotel Fukuoka.
Guests were IAAF President Lamine Diack, JAAF Vice-President Koji Sakurai, IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss, and the following star athletes - defending double World Cross Country champions, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, Australia’s World 5000m bronze medallist, Craig Mottram, and Kayoko Fukushi of Japan, the winner of the recent IAAF cross country permit meeting here in Fukuoka.
---------------- 
Bekele
The world's distance runners might have some hope. "If I do win both races this weekend," Kenenisa Bekele, the Ethiopian bidding to win both the 4km and 12km IAAF World Cross Country titles for the fifth successive time, said, "perhaps will vow never to run a cross-country race again."
But then Bekele's smile broke into a genuine laugh. The chances are, the World and Olympic champion and World record-holder at 10,000 metres was only joking.
Bekele was addressing the official pre-event press conference in Fukuoka, a city on the northern coast of Japan, about a two-hour flight from Tokyo.
Fukuoka is world famous in athletics because of it prestigious international marathon race staged there every December since 1947. It is a race which has been won by Olympic and World champions, and which in 1981 saw Rob de Castella set a world best on the course.
Despite such tradition, the large crowds expected to turn out at the seaside parkland course on Saturday and Sunday may never have seen a distance runner of Bekele's calibre before.
Not that the defending champion is taking anything for granted. Aware that this is the last time that the 4km, "short", race will be included on the programme, Bekele senses that his rivals may have prepared especially hard to try to deny him his fifth double.
"It's not easy to compete the double," he said with characteristic understatement, "but I do want to do it for the last time. This does give me some additional motivation. It is a wonderful opportunity but it will not be an easy thing to achieve. I am sure that many of the others have trained extra hard because this is the last time."
Like most observers, Bekele believes that Saturday's 4km race could offer his toughest challenge. "There are a lot of strong athletes entered this year for the short race," he said, though he declined to name any one in particular who he might regard as a threat. "That would weaken me mentally," he said.
Dibaba
Bekele's Ethiopian team mate, Tirunesh Dibaba, at 20, will be bidding to complete the equivalent women's double, over 8km on Saturday and 4km on Sunday, for an equally remarkable third time. Today, she denied that a recent illness had affected her preparation beyond having to miss three days' training. "I am feeling good for this competition," said the World 5000 and 10,000m gold medallist in Helsinki last August.
Fukushi
Seeking to break up the Ethiopian monopoly of cross-country medals will be Japan's Kayoko Fukushi and Craig Mottram, of Australia, who were also both at the press conference.
"I want to be involved in the race with the Africans," said Fukushi, the national record-holder at 3000 and 5,000m on the track who won the Fukuoka International cross-country race on the same course in early March.
Knowing the love for distance running among her countrymen and women, "why do we have such a tradition at the marathon? Perhaps it is because we are persistent.”
Fukushi hopes that strong support around the course could help her. "I'm sure the spectators will be cheering me on. I want to put on a race that they'll enjoy."
Mottram
Mottram, as someone who trains with Africans for much of the year, has demonstrated in the past that he holds no fear about taking on the masters of distance running, most recently just a week ago, when he took the silver medal in the Commonwealth Games 5000m, splitting the Kenyans Augustine Choge and Benjamin Limo, a past winner of the short-course race at the IAAF World Cross.
"It was the chance of a lifetime, 85,000 people taking the roof of the stadium in your own hometown," Mottram said, "it was 12 minutes of absolute mayhem." He denies that African domination of his events needs to be taken for granted. "If you'd been in Melbourne last week, you'd have thought that the sport was dominated by Australians," he said.
"Having runners from different countries contesting for the medals is more exciting. It's something we've been trying to do in our training group for a few years now, trying to bring a bit of excitement back to the sport.”
"I'm coming here, off an Australian summer, in the form of my life, and I'm looking forward to having another go at Ben and the others.”
"The problem I have with the Ethiopians and the Kenyans in races like this is that there is a lot of them and there's only one of me, so it's going to be very tough, but I'm ready to give it a go."
IAAF

Earlier today, the IAAF Press Conference for the 34th IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in the JAL Resort Sea Hawk Hotel Fukuoka.

Athletes’ Quotes - IAAF Press Conference, World Cross Country Championships, Fukuoka

One wouldn't think that a runner who has destroyed so many world class fields in a very short period of time could remain so tight-lipped about her achievements. But Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba is that sort of an athlete - one who is always eager to let her legs to do the talking and always downplay her achievements. 
“I don’t want to boast about my achievement,” she says. “I want to run well and then let people talk about me. I am happy with what I have achieved so far, but I am hungry to achieve more.”
Just 20 years of age, Dibaba has seen her stature as the best distance runner in the world grow over the last year after winning double World titles over the cross country and the outdoor track (5000m and 10000m). She has also smashed the World Indoor 5000m record at the 2005 Boston Indoor Games in the USA.
Floored in Heathrow 
On other counts, however, Dibaba begun 2006 with a rare defeat over compatriot Gelete Burka at the Edinburgh cross country international in Scotland after the former World Junior Cross Country champion spent the night before the race on the floor of the London Heathrow airport after missing her last connection flight to Edinburgh. 
“It was one of those accident things and I do not want to blame anyone for it,” says a modest Dibaba. “My flight from Addis Ababa was already delayed and there was nothing I could do. I am upset that I lost the race, but not much.” 
Never destined for Moscow 
Dibaba bounced back to winning ways in late January and February taking consecutive wins over the indoor 3000m and 5000m in Boston and then Birmingham. Although she was selected by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) to run in the 11th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Moscow, Russia, she chose not to compete in that event. 
“I did not have enough time between those races,” she says. “From the onset, my season’s plans were not focused on running indoors, but to defend my World Cross country titles in Fukuoka. I never said that I would run in Moscow.” 
In her absence, compatriot and Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar successfully defended her World Indoor 3000m title, but Dibaba hopes to compete in the World Indoors next time around. “Yes, this is one of my targets in the future,” she said. 
Illness 
For now, however, Fukuoka beckons. But Dibaba makes the trip with her Ethiopian compatriots to the southern Japanese city not in the shape she had hoped to find herself at this time of the year. 
Two weeks before the competition, Dibaba caught measles from her younger sister and lost one week of her precious training time in Addis Ababa. “It was a small illness and nothing too serious," she says. "I have trained well over the last week and I feel that I am ready for Fukuoka."
Burka is my biggest challenger 
Dibaba will go into both the short and long races in Fukuoka as an overwhelming favourite, but she will have to contend with a world class field in the short race including Kenya's Olympic 5000m silver medallist Isabella Ochichi and compatriot reigning World Junior Cross Country champion Gelete Burka, the runner who has beaten Dibaba twice of the last one year. 
"She is a very strong runner," says Dibaba of Burka. "I know that she will be my toughest challenger in Fukuoka." 
Despite her attempts to shun the headlines, Dibaba knows that all eyes and the attention will be on her when she steps on the Umi-no-nakamichi Seaside Park this weekend. And if she completes both races on top, she hopes that her legs have done enough talking to convince everyone of her distance running prowess! 
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF

One wouldn't think that a runner who has destroyed so many world class fields in a very short period of time could remain so tight-lipped about her achievements. But Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba is that sort of an athlete - one who is always eager to let her legs to do the talking and always downplay her achievements.

WORLD ATHLETICS CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Men's Long Race, Fukuoka - Bekele's makes it ten but then suggests no more!

Women's Short Race, Fukuoka - Not even a gale can hold back Burka

Men's Junior Race, Fukuoka - Eight straight for Kenya

A crossroads for cross country

The downside of dominance