Edith Masai romps home in the women's short race (© Getty Images)
Ethiopia’s Abebe Dinkesa and Kenyan Edith Masai will start as the hot favourites at the ‘23rd Cross Internacional de Itálica’ - IAAF permit - cross country meet - which will be held in Santiponce, Seville, Spain on Sunday 16 January.
Men - Dinkesa versus Joseph
The 20-year-old Dinkesa came out as a surprise winner in the Iris Lotto Belgian Cross Cup last 19 December in Brussels leaving the likes of renowned specialists such as Sergiy Lebid, Zersenay Tadesse and Paul Tergat trailing in his wake.
Previously, the talented Ethiopian had won the Great Ethiopian Run (28 November) after taking the silver medal in the African Games over 10,000m to Kenya’s Charles Kamathi on 16 July.
A regular training mate of Haile Gebrselassie, Dinkesa will face daunting opposition from his countryman and reigning World Junior Cross Country champion Meba Tadesse, Tanzania’s Fabiano Joseph, Kenya’s Moses Mosop and Bahrain’s Mushir Salim Jawher among others.
Joseph has placed 3rd, 1st, and 2nd in his three outings this winter season on Spanish soil in Llodio (28 Nov), Alcobendas (5 Dec) and Amorebieta (9 January) respectively. With two World Half Marathon silver medals already under his belt (2003 & 2004) Joseph will try to break the Ethiopian dominance in Seville, a race which the great Kenenisa Bekele has been an overwhelming victor of in the last two editions.
Originally, in the absence of Kenenisa Bekele, who had chosen to compete in Edinburgh the day before Seville, the organisers had recruited his younger brother Tariku Bekele to strengthen their race’s line-up but like kenenisa’s withdrawal from Edinburgh, Taiku has also pulled out of the Seville race following his brother’s fiancée’s tragic death on 4 January.
Kenya’s Moses Mosop, still 18, was 7th in the Olympic final in Athens after being runner-up in the Kenyan Trials in June. He is coached by an Italian named Renato Canova. Of the starters on Sunday, he holds the fastest time for the 10,000m on the track with a PB of 27:13.66 set in 2003 in Brussels.
Ethiopia’s Meba Tadesse came second last October at the Giro Al Sals in Trento (Italy) 19 seconds adrift of the Olympic Marathon champion Stefano Baldini. He out-sprinted Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop to take the World Junior Cross Country title last March in Brussels.
Spain’s European medallists Antonio Jiménez (gold/3000m Steeplechase), José Manuel Martínez (gold/10,000m) and Juan Carlos de la Ossa (silver, cross country) will be looking for a top-six performance to salvage the local pride while the Italian duo of Umberto Pusterla and Maurizio Leone will try to deny them the European top spot.
Women – Showdown between Masai and Denboba
Three-time World Cross Country short race champion Edith Masai is the star name in the women’s line-up. The 37-year-old Kenyan will try to make up for her five-second defeat to Australia’s Benita Johnson in Amorebieta last Sunday.
Masai’s stiffest challenge should come from Ethiopia’s Merima Denboba, who is arguably one the most consistent world cross country runners having been a top-ten finisher on eleven occasions in the course of a total of 12 appearances at the World Cross Country Championships.
The winner in the last two year’s in Seville, Denboba’s last appearance came last Saturday in Belfast where she took the runner-up position behind Ethiopia’s African 5000m champion Etalemahu Kidane.
Kenya’s Alice Timbilil is another woman not to be discounted for the win as she only ran three seconds slower than Masai in Amorebieta to take third place. Her compatriot Frida Domongole, Italy’s Patricia Tisi and the Portuguese pair of Jessica Augusto and Monica Rosa should also be in contention.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
