| 38th World Cross Country Championships | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Organisers | IAAF |
| Edition | 38th |
| Date | 28 March |
| Host city | Bydgoszcz,Województwo kujawsko-pomorskie,Poland |
| Venue | Myślęcinek Park |
| Events | 4 |
| Distances | 11.611 km – Senior men 7.759 km – Junior men 7.759 km – Senior women 5.833 km – Junior women |
| Participation | 437 athletes from 51 nations |
| Official website | 2010 Bydgoszcz |
The2010IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held atMyślęcinek Park inBydgoszcz,Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them inWarsaw in1987.[1][2]Kenyan runners dominated the competition, taking all four individual titles and all four team titles at the competition.[3] Kenyans took the top four spots in both junior men's and junior women's races to finish with a perfect team score.[4]
In the absence ofZersenay Tadese andKenenisa Bekele, the senior men's race was an opportunity for less-established runners.Joseph Ebuya won thegold (his first major medal), becoming the first Kenyan to win the men's race sincePaul Tergat in1999.Teklemariam Medhin ofEritrea took second place (also his first major medal) whileMoses Ndiema Kipsiro ofUganda was third. Kenya won the senior men's team gold with ease and Eritrea won the teamsilver medal. Defending championGebregziabher Gebremariam only just made the top ten but ledEthiopia to the teambronze.
Florence Kiplagat was not present to defend the women's senior title, leavingLinet Masai andTirunesh Dibaba as the favourites. However, asprint finish by little-known runnerEmily Chebet rendered Masai the silver medallist for a second year running.Meselech Melkamu ofEthiopia won the fourth World Cross Country bronze of her career as Dibaba finished outside the medals. Kenya and Ethiopia won the team gold and silver, respectively, whileShalane Flanagan led the United States women's team to a bronze medal.
The top four in both the junior men and women's races were all Kenyan, withCaleb Mwangangi Ndiku andMercy Cherono the gold medallists. The dominance of the competition by Kenyan andEast African runners was accompanied by a decline in the number ofEuropean teams that were entered for the tournament, with some historically strong countries sending no athletes at all.
The Bydgoszcz bid for the World Cross Country Championships was approved on 22 March 2009 at the spring IAAF Council meeting.[5]
Athletes could gain qualification into the World Championships through performances at either their national championships or through the following IAAF Permit Meetings:
In order to raise awareness prior to the championships, the city and Polish athletics association organised a weekly cross country run (theCross Bydgoski) every Sunday on the race course from 25 October onwards. Renowned Polish athletes were invited andArtur Kohutek andMarika Popowicz were among those who took to the course to compete alongside professional and amateur runners alike.[6]
The Polish Cross Country Championships were held at the venue, acting as a pre-championship tester for theMyślęcinek Park course two weeks prior to the main event.Katarzyna Kowalska won the women's 8 km race whileMarcin Chabowski won the men's 12 km event.[7] The organising committee introduced an eventmascot – a large grey squirrel called "Crossby".[8]
Before the event, the possible medallists of men's race were less predictable than in previous years –Kenenisa Bekele, who had won six long and five short course gold medals in the previous decade, was ruled out due to an injury and his nearest competitor,2007 winnerZersenay Tadese, missed the championships to focus onroad running instead.[9]
Their absence suggested that aKenyan runner might top the men's podium for the first time in over ten years. The largely untestedPaul Tanui had established himself by summarily beating his more experienced counterparts by over half a minute at the Kenyan championships.Leonard Komon andJoseph Ebuya were other Kenyan men in strong form. Many ofEthiopia's top athletes were absent, although the defending championGebregziabher Gebremariam was a key medal contender and former junior championAyele Abshero was making his first try at the senior ranks. Outside the traditionally successful Ethiopian and Kenya teams,Samuel Tsegay ofEritrea and 2009 silver medallistMoses Ndiema Kipsiro ofUganda were medal possibilities, while the2009 European ChampionAlemayehu Bezabeh headed an improved Spanish team.[9]
In the women's race,Linet Masai (2009 silver medallist) andTirunesh Dibaba (the 2008 champion) were strong favourites for the women's medals. The defending champion,Florence Kiplagat, was not in attendance but 2009 fourth placerLineth Chepkurui was another Kenyan contender for the medals. Ethiopia entered a strong team, including Dibaba, 2003 championWerknesh Kidane and multiple past medallistMeselech Melkamu. Non-African runners in good form were 2004 championBenita Willis of Australia and 2009 European championHayley Yelling. The United States andPortugal had entered strong women's teams, led by national championsShalane Flanagan andAna Dulce Félix respectively, which were given good medalling possibilities.[10]
The course for the race was flat with a number of turns and was grassy and reasonably dry underfoot. An unusual addition to the relatively straightforward course was the placement of large wooden logs on the course as hurdles. This aspect came under criticism from Jason Henderson ofAthletics Weekly, who commented that the course "seems to be some kind of children’s play park, runners also have to run past a bizarre-looking wooden crocodile."[11] A mix of unseasonably warm weather, followed by a cold, overcast day prior to the championships, suggested the event would be held in less than ideal conditions.[11][12] However, the race day itself was sunny and (at 10°C) the temperature was well-suited to the runners.[13]
The men's race started at a middling-pace and 20 runners (mostly Kenyans, Ethiopians and Eritreans) had formed a leading pack by the third lap. Defending champion Gebregziabher Gebremariam was not among them and it soon became obvious he would not reach the podium for a second year running. Samuel Tsegay andTeklemariam Medhin of Eritrea began to increase the pace at the beginning of the fourth lap. This disrupted the pack and by the end of the lap Medhin was leading, shortly followed by Joseph Ebuya and Moses Kipsiro, who was a little further behind. Ebuya took the lead and he continued the quicker pace for the fifth and final lap. Medhin stayed close to Ebuya, however, while Leonard Komon and Kipsiro were battling for thebronze medal position.[13]
As the race drew to a close, Ebuya pulled away from Medhin to beat the Eritrean by six seconds, becoming the first Kenyan senior men's champion sincePaul Tergat in1999. Komon and Kipsiro engaged in asprint finish in the finalstraight and, although they recorded the same time, it was Kipsiro who took the honours. Tsegay andHasan Mahboob took fifth and sixth places and a Kenyan trio ofRichard Kipkemboi Mateelong, Paul Tanui, andHosea Mwok Macharinyang ensured that Kenya took the team gold as well.[13] Eritrea took the team silver medal, pushing Ethiopian into third place on the team podium.Chakir Boujattaoui (in 12th place) helpedMorocco to fourth in the rankings whileSaudi Arabian-born runnerSimon Bairu, representingCanada, was the first non-African to cross the line.[14]
Later that year, Boujattaoui's performance was erased from the record as he failed a pre-race drug test forMIRCERA (anEPO variant).[15] This meant that Bairu was elevated into the top twelve while Uganda moved ahead of Morocco by one place in the final team rankings.
Linet Masai, the previous year's silver medallist, made a strong start to the race and began to set the pace for the race alongside her Kenyan teammates. After the first lap around fifteen runners had formed a leading pack comprising mainly Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, although Benita Willis, Shalane Flanagan, and Hilda Kibet remained among them. The group stayed together until the third lap at which point the pace became too much for some runners. By the midpoint of the lap, former champion Tirunesh Dibaba had slipped out of contention and was ten seconds behind the three leading athletes: Masai,Emily Chebet and Meselech Melkamu.[16]
In the final lap, Masai made her move and began to forge a lead over the other two runners. However, Chebet began to chase Masai, leaving Melkamu behind her. Masai was ahead at the final straight towards the finish but Chebet's sprint quickly reduced the gap between the two. The little-known Chebet won at the line, defeating the pre-race favourite Masai, who had to content herself with another silver having lost another sprint finish at the competition. Melkamu took third uncontested while Dibaba was fourth some twelve seconds behind the bronze medallist. KenyansLineth Chepkurui andMargaret Wangari Muriuki took fifth and sixth to confirm their team gold and the Ethiopian women took the team silver. American runner Shalane Flanagan was twelfth and top-20 finishes fromMolly Huddle andMagdalena Lewy-Boulet helped the United States to a team bronze.[16][17]
The junior men's race was a straightforward affair: a Kenyan trio ofCaleb Ndiku,Clement Langat andJaphet Korir monopolised first position for laps one and two. Ndiku took to the front of the leading pack on the third lap and never relinquished his position after maintaining a fast pace. As Ndiku increased his lead,Moses Kibet of Uganda attempted to follow, but he eventually fell off the pace. Langat and Korir pulled closer to their teammate in the final stages but they took second and third place respectively.Isaiah Koech overtook Kibet to head the Kenyan team to a perfect gold, occupying the top four spots.[18] With Ethiopia, Uganda and Eritrea taking the next three team spots, the upper rankings featured almost exclusively East African runners, withJoel Mmone of South Africa (21st place) being the only exception among the first 24 runners to finish.[19]
The junior women's race marked a resounding defeat for the defending Ethiopian team and its defending championGenzebe Dibaba. The leading pack remained large during the first two laps, but on the third and final lap the Kenyan women asserted themselves. By the halfway point,Mercy Cherono was at the front of a group of four Kenyans comprisingPurity Rionoripo,Esther Chemtai andFaith Chepngetich. Cherono pulled ahead of her compatriots and won with ease. Rionoripo just pipped Chemtai for second place in a sprint finish, shortly followed by Chepndetich in fourth place. Dibaba finished in eleventh, helping Ethiopia to the team silver. Uganda took the team bronze while the first non-African-born runner home wasGulshat Fazlitdinova of Russia.[20][21]
Having won every gold medal on offer, as well as a 1–2 in the women's race and every junior individual medal, Kenya were perceived as being by far the dominant force of the championships.[3][22] However, while this success was lauded as a great achievement for Kenya by commentators such as former championJohn Ngugi,[23] this dominance came with a fall in both interest and participation fromWestern countries.[24] Nations with distinguished histories inlong distance running, such asRussia, Germany andFinland, sent no senior athletes to the championships at all, while the sole runners forBelgium and theNetherlands (Atelaw Yeshetela andHilda Kibet) were both born in East Africa.[11]
The secretary general of the IAAF,Pierre Weiss, acknowledged the lack of European teams present at the competition, but said that problem was solely with world championships participation and not the sport ofcross country running as a whole as the2009 European Cross Country Championships had been successful. IAAF presidentLamine Diack stated that European runners needed to learn from the East Africans to improve their performances.[11] However, the decline in European interest had a direct effect on the scheduling of the world championships event, which had been changed from an annual to a biennial format by a large majority of votes at the 2009 IAAF Congress.[25]
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| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | ||||||
| Senior men (11.611 km) | Joseph Ebuya Kenya | 33:00 | Teklemariam Medhin Eritrea | 33:06 | Moses Ndiema Kipsiro Uganda | 33:10 |
| Junior men (7.759 km) | Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku Kenya | 22:07 | Clement Kiprono Langat Kenya | 22:09 | Japhet Kipyegon Korir Kenya | 22:12 |
| Senior women (7.759 km) | Emily Chebet Kenya | 24:19 | Linet Chepkwemoi Masai Kenya | 24:20 | Meselech Melkamu Ethiopia | 24:26 |
| Junior women (5.833 km) | Mercy Cherono Kenya | 18:47 | Purity Cherotich Rionoripo Kenya | 18:54 | Esther Chemtai Kenya | 18:55 |
| Team | ||||||
| Senior men | Kenya | 20 | Eritrea | 46 | Ethiopia | 69 |
| Junior men | Kenya | 10 | Ethiopia | 32 | Uganda | 56 |
| Senior women | Kenya | 14 | Ethiopia | 22 |  United States | 76 |
| Junior women | Kenya | 10 | Ethiopia | 30 | Uganda | 81 |
Complete results for senior men[26][27] and for senior men's teams[28][29][30] were published.
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time (m:s) |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Joseph Ebuya | Kenya | 33:00 |
 | Teklemariam Medhin | Eritrea | 33:06 |
 | Moses Ndiema Kipsiro | Uganda | 33:10 |
| 4 | Leonard Patrick Komon | Kenya | 33:10 |
| 5 | Samuel Tsegay | Eritrea | 33:27 |
| 6 | Hasan Mahboob |  Bahrain | 33:28 |
| 7 | Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong | Kenya | 33:29 |
| 8 | Paul Kipngetich Tanui | Kenya | 33:30 |
| 9 | Hosea Mwok Macharinyang | Kenya | 33:31 |
| 10 | Gebregziabher Gebremariam | Ethiopia | 33:35 |
| 11 | Ahmad Hassan Abdullah |  Qatar | 33:36 |
| 12† | Simon Bairu |  Canada | 33:42 |
| Full results | |||
| Rank | Team | Points† | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya
| 20 | ||||||||||||
| Eritrea
| 44 | ||||||||||||
| Ethiopia
| 66 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Uganda | 87 | ||||||||||||
| 5 |  Morocco | 110 | ||||||||||||
| 6 |  Spain | 150 | ||||||||||||
| 7 |  Tanzania | 159 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Bahrain | 169 | ||||||||||||
| Full results | ||||||||||||||
Complete results for senior women,[31][32] and for senior women's teams[33][34][35] were published.
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time (m:s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emily Chebet | Kenya | 24:19 |
| Linet Masai | Kenya | 24:20 |
| Meselech Melkamu | Ethiopia | 24:26 |
| 4 | Tirunesh Dibaba | Ethiopia | 24:38 |
| 5 | Lineth Chepkurui | Kenya | 24:40 |
| 6 | Margaret Muriuki | Kenya | 24:42 |
| 7 | Feyse Tadese | Ethiopia | 25:03 |
| 8 | Mamitu Daska | Ethiopia | 25:03 |
| 9 | Werknesh Kidane | Ethiopia | 25:07 |
| 10 | Hilda Kibet |  Netherlands | 25:17 |
| 11 | Shitaye Eshete | Bahrain | 25:20 |
| 12 | Shalane Flanagan |  United States | 25:20 |
| Full results | |||
| Rank | Team | Points | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya
| 14 | ||||||||||||
| Ethiopia
| 22 | ||||||||||||
| United States
| 76 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Morocco | 127 | ||||||||||||
| 5 |  Portugal | 127 | ||||||||||||
| 6 |  United Kingdom | 140 | ||||||||||||
| 7 |  Japan | 150 | ||||||||||||
| 8 |  Australia | 155 | ||||||||||||
| Full results | ||||||||||||||
Complete for junior men,[36][37] and for junior men's teams[38][39][40] were published.
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time (m:s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku | Kenya | 22:07 |
| Clement Kiprono Langat | Kenya | 22:09 |
| Japhet Kipyegon Korir | Kenya | 22:12 |
| 4 | Isaiah Kiplangat Koech | Kenya | 22:24 |
| 5 | Moses Kibet | Uganda | 22:27 |
| 6 | Debebe Woldsenbet | Ethiopia | 22:28 |
| 7 | Gashaw Biftu | Ethiopia | 22:31 |
| 8 | Gideon Kipkemoi Kipketer | Kenya | 22:33 |
| 9 | Gebretsadik Abraha | Ethiopia | 22:37 |
| 10 | Belete Assefa | Ethiopia | 22:41 |
| 11 | Charles Kibet Chepkurui | Kenya | 22:44 |
| 12 | Nassir Dawud | Eritrea | 22:48 |
| Full results | |||
| Rank | Team | Points | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya
| 10 | ||||||||||||
| Ethiopia
| 32 | ||||||||||||
| Uganda
| 56 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Eritrea | 66 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Morocco | 121 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Japan | 133 | ||||||||||||
| 7 |  South Africa | 157 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | United States | 169 | ||||||||||||
| Full results | ||||||||||||||
Complete results for junior women,[41][42] and for junior women's teams[43][44][45] were published.
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time (m:s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercy Cherono | Kenya | 18:47 |
| Purity Cherotich Rionoripo | Kenya | 18:54 |
| Esther Chemtai | Kenya | 18:55 |
| 4 | Faith Kipyegon | Kenya | 19:02 |
| 5 | Genet Yalew | Ethiopia | 19:03 |
| 6 | Emebet Anteneh | Ethiopia | 19:06 |
| 7 | Nelly Chebet Ngeiywo | Kenya | 19:06 |
| 8 | Afera Godfay | Ethiopia | 19:07 |
| 9 | Alice Aprot Nawowuna | Kenya | 19:14 |
| 10 | Tejitu Daba | Bahrain | 19:14 |
| 11 | Genzebe Dibaba | Ethiopia | 19:21 |
| 12 | Merima Mohammed | Ethiopia | 19:26 |
| Full results | |||
| Rank | Team | Points | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya
| 10 | ||||||||||||
| Ethiopia
| 30 | ||||||||||||
| Uganda
| 81 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Japan | 98 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | United Kingdom | 105 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | United States | 123 | ||||||||||||
| 7 |  Algeria | 197 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Canada | 202 | ||||||||||||
| Full results | ||||||||||||||
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| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenya (KEN) | 8 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| 2 | Ethiopia (ETH) | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Eritrea (ERI) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Uganda (UGA) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 5 | United States (USA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (5 entries) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 | |
According to an unofficial count, 437 athletes from 51 countries participated. This is in agreement with the official numbers as published.[46]
Algeria (12)
Argentina (2) Australia (16)
Azerbaijan (2) Bahrain (12)
Belarus (2)
Belgium (1)
Botswana (5)
Brazil (5)
Bulgaria (1) Canada (13)
China (3)
Egypt (6) Eritrea (11)
Estonia (1) Ethiopia (24)
France (18)
Gibraltar (2)
Iraq (4)
Ireland (2)
Israel (4)
Italy (10) Japan (24)
Jordan (2)
Kazakhstan (3) Kenya (24)
Kuwait (3)
Lesotho (2)
Mexico (7) Morocco (18) Netherlands (1)
New Zealand (9)
Norway (2)
Peru (1) Poland (24) Portugal (15) Qatar (5)
Russia (6)
Rwanda (1)
Seychelles (2)
Somalia (1) South Africa (23) Spain (19)
Sudan (4)
Switzerland (1)
Tajikistan (2) Tanzania (4)
Tunisia (17) Uganda (16)United Kingdom (21) United States (24)World Championships organised byWorld Athletics | |
|---|---|
| Outdoor | |
| Indoor | |
| Continental Cup* | |
| U20 | |
| U18 | |
| Cross Country | |
| Race Walking | |
| Women's Road Race | |
| Marathon | |
| Half Marathon | |
| Road Relay | |
| Relays | |
| Ultimate | |
| Road Running | |
Internationalcross country running championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| World |  | |
| Continental | ||
| Regional | ||
See also:Modern pentathlon •International Cross Country Championships (1903–1972) | ||
53°10′00″N18°02′19″E / 53.16667°N 18.03861°E /53.16667; 18.03861
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