Genet Getaneh wins the women's race in the 2004 Great Ethiopian Run (© Mark Shearman)
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaYebeltal Admassu, fourth in the 2001 World championship 10,000m, will start as the favourite in the men’s race of the 2005 Toyota Great Ethiopian Run, with 26,000 mass participants officially confirmed.
In the women’s race, defending champion Genet Getaneh will be hoping to become the first woman to successfully defend her title in the five-year history of the race.
The best from the international field comes from Kenya with Olga Kimaiyo and Joseph Ngolepus aiming to end Ethiopia’s four-year domination of the race.
Men - Admassu versus Ngolepus continues Ethio-Kenyan rivalry
Since finishing a respectable fourth in the 2001 World championships 10,000m race four years ago, Admassu has struggled with injury and loss of form. He finished sixth at the 2003 Great Ethiopian Run and sixth in the long race at the 2004 World Cross Country Championships in Brussels.
He failed to earn a place on Ethiopia’s World cross country team for St. Etienne/ St. Galmier earlier this year, but returned to action in April with a win at the Bahir Dar Run for Girls’ Education, a 10km race in Bahir Dar, northern Ethiopia. He has since run five races (three on the track and two on the road) winning one, a 5000m race in Trento, Italy.
"I have prepared very well and am ready for this race," Admassu told IAAF Internet. "This will be very good preparation for some cross country races I will take part in late 2005 and 2006."
His main challenge is going to come from a quartet of Ethiopians led by Lishan Yegezu (13th at last month’s IAAF World Half Marathon Championships); his club mate from St. George Sports Club Rajja Assefa; and Ketema Negussie, a member of Ethiopia’s team at the World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne in 2003.
Ngolepus, the 2001 Real Berlin Marathon winner, tops the international field. The Kenyan, who also finished fifth in this year’s Berlin Marathon and third in the 2003 Flora London Marathon, has a personal best of 2:07.57 for the full marathon and 60:56 for the half-marathon.
Women – Can Getaneh defend?
Getaneh produced arguably the biggest surprise in the event’s history last year when winning the women’s race and setting a course record of 34:18 along the way. The prisons club athlete returns this year as the defending champion and the favorite.
Her most likely opponent will be Askale Tafa, third in the Real Berlin marathon in September. She is joined in the elite women’s race by 2004 World junior cross country silver medalist Aziza Aliyu; Gishu Mendaye (third in the 2005 Abebe Bikila International Marathon and sixth in the 2005 Frankfurt Marathon); and Robe Tola (third in the 2005 Frankfurt Marathon).
The international field is led by Kenya’s Olga Kimaiyo, who was fifth in the Great South Run in Portsmouth, England in October. She is joined by her compatriot Florence Chepkirui, who beat Kenya’s former London marathon champion Joyce Chepchumba at October’s Ada Ciganlija Women’s race in Belgrade.
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
