Tariku Bekele wins the 2005 Elgoibar cross country (© Julián Azkue)
The 22nd edition of the ‘Cross Internacional Valle de Llodio, the second meeting of the current IAAF Cross Country permit season, will take place this Sunday (27 Nov). Armed with a budget of 100,000USD race organiser Javier Aparicio has assembled - as happens every year in Llodio - a line-up of the highest calibre.
MEN – Vast array of talent
Kenenisa Bekele’s younger brother Tariku will try to improve on his runners-up position from last year when he was out-sprinted by fellow Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam. Bekele jr, still 18, comes to Llodio fresh from a four-second defeat to Kenya’s Ronald Rutto in Oeiras, Portugal, last Sunday when the IAAF Cross Country permit season got underway.
Despite his huge improvement on the track this year – a seventh place finish at the World Championships in Helsinki over 5000m, and a below 13 minutes performance at that distance – winning won’t be an easy task for Tariku as he will face stiff opposition from the in-form Kenyan Boniface Songok, who was an overwhelming victor at the EAA permit race in Soria one week ago.
Songok won’t be the only top Kenyan on show as reigning World Cross Country silver medallist in the short race, Abraham Chebii, will also be in contention. On his winter debut the 26-year-old will try to make up for his below-par 2005 track season when he didn’t manage to clock faster than 13:22 in his 5000m specialist event. Chebii has already one victory in Llodio to his credit back in 2000.
Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop, who was fourth at the Helsinki Worlds over 10,000m, is another athlete not be discounted as he has been a solid cross country competitor over the last years. He placed seventh at the 2005 World Cross in the long race prior to an outstanding 26:39.77 10,000m performance in Brussels which raised him to the top-ten on the all time list for the distance.
Ethiopia’s Eshetu Gezhagne will compete for the second consecutive Sunday on Spanish soil after his fine third place in Soria and should also be in the hunt for first spot.
Battling for fitness De la Ossa still believes in himself
Spain’s double European Cross Country silver medallist Juan Carlos de la Ossa will race on Sunday despite not being fully recovered from a minor injury. “I sprained my right ankle during a training session a fortnight ago and I’ve missed valuable days of work,” confirmed the Spanish hope. “I still feel some discomfort but I’ve decided to compete on Sunday to assess my current shape thinking of the European XC Championships. To make the podium in Tilburg (2005 Euro XC Champs) under these circumstances will be harder than in the previous years but I’ll do my very best” confirmed De la Ossa who turns 29 today, 25 November.
Spain’s reigning European 10,000 champion José Manuel Martínez, Ricardo Serrano, and Iván Galán should also finish among the top- ten on Sunday which would lead their selection for the Europeans in Tilburg. Portugal’s Fernando Silva, fourth in Oeiras, and Eduardo Henriques will also try to be the top European’s home.
WOMEN – Africa versus Europe
The women’s race it will be very much a matter of Europe versus Africa. Ethiopia’s Meselech Melkamu, the 2004 World Junior Cross Country champion who was fourth and sixth in the senior long and short races respectively at the World championships last March, is the most notable starter in the quality women’s field.
The strong African challenge in Llodio also includes the Kenyan pair of Rose and Beatrice Jepchumba – both top-ten athletes in the 2005 World Cross - with the former trying to succeed again following her win last Sunday in Soria.
Yelling, Bak, Kalovics…a real European warm up!
On the European side Britain’s reigning European Cross Country champion Hayley Yelling will have the opportunity to assess her level on the world scene alongside Poland’s Justyna Bak and Hungary’s Aniko Kalovics in what promises to be a dress rehearsal for the European Cross Country in two week’s time.
Sunday’s race will provide opportunities for revenge as Yelling and Bak came 1-2 at the last Europeans, while the Briton was surprisingly beaten by Kalovics in the Tilburg EAA permit two weeks ago, though it was run on a different course to that which will be used at the championships.
Two top-ten Oeiras finishers, Ines Monteiro (second) and Monica Rosa (seventh), both of Portugal are too dangerous outsiders capable of making the top spots. Local hopes rest on reigning national cross country and 3000m Steeplechase champion Rosa Morató who clinched a praiseworthy third place in Torredonjimeno on 13 November, barely one second behind Bak (winner) and Monteiro, runner-up on that occasion.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
