Heart and sole win for Bekele
Yesterday’s championships will be remembered best for the remarkable comeback performances of ‘shoe-less’ Kenenisa Bekele who failed to finish in Mombasa last year and Tirunesh Dibaba who returned to reclaim the senior women’s title relinquished to Lornah Kiplagat in the Kenyan coastal town.
Bekele wrote a whole new chapter into the history of global athletics by winning a record sixth senior title — Kenyan legends Paul Tergat and John Ngugi shared the old record with five apiece — but it was the manner in which he executed this particular victory that place him in a class apart.
The Olympic and world 10,000m champion suffered a 12 hour delay in his flight which meant that he did not arrive in Edinburgh until late on Saturday afternoon.
And then, less than a lap into the race, he lost a shoe and, as he stopped to pick it up and put it on again he could only watch the leading group disappear into the distance.
At the end of the lap he had them caught, took a breather sitting deep in 12th and when the principals assembled at the front to do business he was right there.
It was an exciting finish to a classic race but — from an Irish viewpoint — this was a grim day at Holyrood Park. Alistair Cragg went into the race with a hamstring injury that left him with a dead left leg after the first lap.
He never looked comfortable — 39th at the end of the first of six 2,000m laps and 61st at the end of the second. By the end of the third lap big Meathman, Andrew Ledwith, towered over him momentarily and then race clear to end up Ireland’s first man home in 67th place.
By that time Cragg had tried to explain what was a dismal performance. “I had this hamstring problem since Belfast — just a slip in the mud or something — so I tried to slow it down and get my legs back underneath me but I just could not get them moving any more.”
Kenya won the senior men’s team title for the third successive year. Up to 2004 they had owned it for 16 years before the Ethiopians took it from them and defended it in 2005.
Ireland’s hopes of a respectable placing diminished with the withdrawal of injured Keith Kelly and when Vinny Mulvey followed Alistair Cragg out they failed to finish a team.
African runners filled the top 19 places in the junior men’s race won by Ibrahim Jeilan from his Ethiopian team mate, Ahele Abshero, with Lucas Kemili Rotich (Kenya) third.
Craig Murphy (Togher) was the leading Irish runner in 48th place with Michael Mulhare from Portlaoise finishing 75th.
Meanwhile, Genzebe Dibaba sparked off a family double and introduced a new generation of African women runners when she won the junior title.
But it was her older sister, Tirunesh, who derived the more pleasure from her achievement as she reclaimed the senior women’s title which was snatched from her grasp by Lornah Kiplagat in Mombasa last year.
She appeared to be out of contention — back in 15th position at the bell when there appeared to be just four in contention, Mestawet Tufa (Ethiopia), two Kenyans Linet Chepkwemoi Masai and Doris Chepkwemoi and Hilda Kibet who runs for Holland with Dibaba off the pace.
And just when it appeared as if there was another upset on the cards Dibaba sprinted up the hill for the final time to throw down the gauntlet and the contest for the gold medal was decided swiftly and decisively.
Ireland’s hopes of a top 15 placing had disintegrated a long way out when Fionuala Britton, who was 14th last year, drifted back through the field.
She was in the pack when Liz and Hayley Yelling led the early stages of the race but she was 28th, just off the back of a big leading group, a lap later. She dropped back to 30th as the leading group split many ways and it was clear she was never going to get back into contention.
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