Ukraine's Sergiy Lebid breaks the finsihing tape at the 2003 European Cross Country Championships (© Getty Images)
Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid proved invincible in today’s senior men’s race at the 10th Spar European Cross Country championships in Holyrood Park, winning his fourth gold medal, an unprecedented third consecutive title in the short history of this event.
Lebid who had been training at altitude and had flown in direct from his Italian base to take part, was always in the leading pack throughout the race which incidentally got off to a false start, something which in terms of cross country racing is surely pretty historic in itself! However, there was to be nothing faulty in Lebid’s tactics as the race unfolded.
After a pedestrian paced first lap and the field had sorted itself out after tackling the first of five ascents up Haggis Knowe, the rugged hill which at 20 metres in height dominated the features of this 10,095 metres long course, Lebid was already among the large head pack of runners, many of whom took momentary turns in the lead.
The leading pretenders to Lebid’s crown at this stage were Spain’s Fabian Roncero and Juan Carlos de la Ossa, France’s Driss El Himer and Mustapha Essaid, Belgium’s Tom Van Hooste, and even fellow Ukrainian Yevgen Bozhko.
It was Roncero and de la Ossa though who were the most active in the vanguard, regularly pushing the pace but on each occasion Lebid hovered like a shadow on their heels.
De la Ossa sets out a confident challenge
De la Ossa was seemingly not overawed at all. In fact with nearly 15 minutes on the clock and the Ukrainian happy to sit back and let the Spaniard do all the work, he looked over his shoulder and cheekily beckoned for Ledid to do his share at the front, which he duly did.
The shared pace setting of these two began to open the field apart, gradually seeing off the challenge of Roncero and the rest. A five second lead over the main chasing pack suddenly appeared as if by magic, as Lebid began to cast his spell over his rivals. The break had grown to an eight seconds margin by the time that the leading pair were joined by Portugal’s Eduardo Henriques, 35, the 1999 silver medallist, who had made a long sustained solo break of his own from seemingly nowhere, to catch up, and complete the triumvirate who would eventually make up the medal podium.
With Van Hooste, Boshko, the French and Roncero cast more and more adrift, the question now was merely how the medal colours would be distributed among the leading trio. However, in this respect there remained a good deal of uncertainty for it wasn't just Lebid who was running easy. De la Ossa, 27, who was ninth at the World 5000m track finals this August, also looked very comfortable.
Yet we should have known that Lebid, who hadn't raced since improving his half marathon personal best in September (61:49) at the Great North Run, was just toying with his two followers. Finally, in the 22nd minute of the race Lebid made his decisive move and by the bell lap (25:29 for 8325m) the 28 year-old was 17 seconds ahead of his Spanish opponent, who going up Haggis Knowe for the final time made his own break from Henriques, who quickly fell further back.
By the finish Lebid was in full flow and strode effortlessly across the finish in 30:47, twenty-one seconds ahead of de la Ossa who was another seven seconds in front of Henriques. However, the Portuguese only just managed to hold off an impressive finish from Van Hooste (4th, 31:18) and Bozhko (5th 31:19), who along with Roncero (6th 31:23) had done most of the work at the front of the main chasing pack.
Tight team battle
If the individual championship was easily won, then the team title battle was quite the contrary, as France took the gold from Spain with both countries sharing the same total of 47 points.
France had packed very well with Mustapha Essaid (7th, 31:26), El Hassan Lahssini (8th, 31:29) and Driss El Himer (10th 31:34) all in the top ten but it was Khalid Zoubaa their fourth finisher (22nd 31:50) who clinched the win having made up four places in the last lap! Spain’s third and fourth finishers were Ivan Hierro (12th 31:54) and Kamel Ziani (27th 31:54). Portugal were third with 65 points.
“I wanted to come here to show the people how good I was,” said Lebid. “I knew I was in great condition and I felt good for most of the race. It was pretty much an easy and comfortable race for me.”
Juan Carlos de la Ossa who was sixth in this race last year has made dramatic improvement this year and was happy with his silver, though he cited some injury problems. “I had a bit of abdominal pain during the race but overall I am very happy to have come second.”
Lebid’s victory equalled Portugal’s Paulo Guerra’s total of four championship wins but despite such a feat he was always confident of the win having stated just prior to the race, “After the fourth win I want to then go for a fifth gold and just keep trying to win as many times as I can….Why should I change a system that has worked well in the past?”
After today’s display there is no arguing with Lebid’s logic at least on a European level but against Africa’s best we will still have to wait and see. Though Lebid took the silver medal at the 2001 World Cross Country Championships, similar form in the last two years at the continental championships have only led to “did not finish” listings at the following World Cross races.
Junior Men – A Russian parade
“For sure it was the best possible result”, was the inevitable conclusion of Yevgeniy Rybakov as he successfully defended the title he won last year in Croatia, and led home a clean sweep of the individual medals for Russia, which also helped them secure the overall team victory.
Yevgeniy’s win was also a family triumph as it was taken by a whisker on the line from his brother Anatoliy in a mirror finish of his success twelve months before. Yevgeniy’s win here makes up for his disappointment at the European Junior track championships in Tampere, Finland last summer where he failed to finish in the 10,000m. At the same championships Anatoliy had won the 5000m title in some style.
“For sure this is the best possible result, and makes up for what happened at the Europeans on the track…it’s good to end the year on such a good note,” said the winner.
But what about beating his brother again in such a dramatic finish line battle?
“Yes, it ( the win) was nearly the same as last time (2002) but the most important thing is that we keep winning the medals for Russia, we do not mind who is first and second, it is just a bonus for the one who wins. Anyway we hope to get faster” concluded Yevgeniy.
Anatoliy smiled politely at his brother’s remark but must be beginning to wonder how he will ever get the better of his 18 year-old sibling, who was born just 90 seconds early than him.
Whatever questions remain about possible family rivalry between these two brilliant Russians, there is no doubt they dominated this race in a most impressive manner, and inspired compatriot Aleksey Reunkov to go with them and take the bronze for good measure. Sergey Ryazantse in 14th spot made up the Russian team quartet for gold (20pts). Romania was second team (31pts) and Spain was third (46pts).
It was a very simple but close race in the first three laps but by the start of the fourth and final lap (15:28), the contest had developed into a Russian versus Romanian dual meeting, as Cosmin Suteu and Marius Ionescu, who were eventually to finish fourth and fifth, vied confidently with the Russian trio.
However, within half a minute of the bell sounding, Yevgeniy raised the tempo somewhat and Ionescu was the first to drop back, and as the remaining four climbed up Haggis Knowe for the final time in this 6595m race, Suteu was also dropped.
However, until the last couple of hundred metres run-in to the finish it looked like Reunkov might spoil the Rybakov family celebrations but with both brothers running side by side and stride for stride, their combined momentum was just too much for the one year older Reunkov. At the finish a perfectly timed dip at the line by Yevgeniy sealed the win ahead of his brother, both being credited with the same time (20:52). Reunkov was third a second back.
IAAF
