MONACO (AP) — The IAAF has ratified two world records set by Zersenay Tadese. The Eritrean runner broke both the 20K and half marathon records in Lisbon on March 21.

Tadese ran the half marathon in 58 minutes, 23 seconds, breaking Kenyan Samuel Kamau Wanjiru’s mark by 10 seconds. Tadese also completed 20K during the same race in 55:21, which beat the previous mark of 55:48 set by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie in 2006.

The IAAF also ratified a new world indoor record in the women’s 3,200 relay. A Russian quartet set a time of 8:12.41 in Moscow on Feb. 28.

Lisbon, Portugal – Another great field has been assembled for the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon which on Sunday celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The target for organisers of this IAAF Gold Label Road Race is the World record in the Half Marathon, sweetened by a 50,000 EUR World record bonus. As has been done in the previous two editions, the runners will follow a modified record standard course with the start at sea level.

Leading the charge will be Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea, the four-time World Half Marathon champion and 2009 World silver medalist at 10,000m. The 28-year-old has asked organizers to provide pacesetters to target the 58:33 World record set by Samuel Wanjiru in 2007. Tadese has a career bet of 58:59 from 2007.

Joining Tadese will be Jaouad Gharib of Morocco the two-time World champion in the Marathon and reigning Olympic silver medallist over the longer distance. Gharib, who has a 59:59 personal best, is a regular presence at the race and has collected five top-10 finishes including last year’s runner-up showing.

Kenya will of course also be well represented. Leading the way for the east African powerhouse will be Samuel Kosgei (59:35 PB), the 30Km World record holder (1:27.44); Portugal Half Marathon winner in 2008 and 2009, Silas Sang (1:00:20); Emmanuel Mutai (1:00:39), the 2009 World championships Marathon silver medalist; adn Gideon Ngatuny (59:50), winner of Nagoya Half Marathon in 2008 and 2009. Other Kenyans expected in the mix include Matthew Kisorio (10,000m pb: 27:15.44), who was sixth at the 2009 Cross Country Championships; Sammy Kitwara (58:59); Nicholas Korir (15Km PB 42:59); John Kariuki (60:10); Ernest Kebenei (1:01:39); Peter Kiplagat Sitienei (1:01:25); and Kiplimo Kimutai (59:44).

Ethiopian Melese Asfaw (1:02:35), winner of 2008 and 2009 Shanghai Marathon, could be a factor as well, along with his compatriot Ibrahim Jeilan, a former World Youth and Junior medallist who is still just 20.

Leading Europeans in the field include Spaniard “Chema” Martinez, the 2002 European champion in the 10,000m and runner-up at the continental championships in 2006; Russian Yuri Abramov (1:02:50), who was third at last year’s Houston Marathon.

Leading the domestic charge will be Luís Feiteira (1:03:43), who was fifth at the 2009 Prague Marathon; Helder Ornelas (1:02:57), the runner-up last year in the Saint Denis Half Marathon; and José Ramos (1:03:23), who was ninth in this race last year.

Dita vs. Ndereba in the women’s race

In the women’s field, the focus will be on Romanian Constantina Dita, the 2008 Olympic Marathon champion who has a 1:08:07 PB, and Catherine Ndereba (1:07:53) of Kenya, the two-time Olympic silver medallist in the Marathon.

Others to watch include Kenyans Magdeline Chemjor (1:09:39) and Peninah Arusei (1:08:20), the winner of this year’s Koyang Half Marathon, and Ethiopian Askale Tafa (1:09:37), who was fifth at the 2008 Boston Marathon.

Local eyes will focus on former Olympic, World and European champion Fernanda Ribeiro (1:08:23), and Monica Rosa (1:13:09) who will be looking to improve from her sixth place finish here last year.

The women’s field is not as deep as the men’s but the weather forecast promises good conditions for everyone. Temperatures of 15 C maximum (12 C min) are expected, with light winds and a 30 percent chance of rain.

This race, which boasts a total of 35,000 runners (6000 in the Half Marathon), crosses the Tagus River over the popular 25th of April Bridge.

António Manuel Fernandes for the IAAF

The race’s home, the ‘Monte Valonsadero’ circuit, is a beautiful forest on the outskirts of Soria well-known for having been 1992 Olympic 1500m champion Fermín Cacho and 1997 and 1999 World Marathon gold medallist Abel Antón’s usual training place for many years.

Undoubtedly, the marquee athletes on Sunday will be Ethiopia’s Gebre- egziabher Gebremariam and Kenya’s Linet Masai. Both stars should continue their successful European tour following Gebremariam’s sprint wins in Atapuerca (8 Nov.) and Oeiras (21 Nov) while Masai also kicked off her XC season in style by capturing a solid win in Llodio last Sunday.

Trying to deny Gebremariam top spot will be Eritrea’s Kidane Tadese and his fellow Ethiopian Mesfin Hunegnaw, a top-ten from the last World Championships in Amman who more recently took second at the Quintanar permit (15 Nov) sandwiched between Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh and Eritrea’s Teklemariam Medhin.

As for Kidane, a respectable ninth at the Berlin Worlds over 10,000m just a place ahead of Gebremariam, he recorded a third spot in Llodio where Hunegnaw had to settle for seventh while Issak Sibhatu, also of Eritrea, will also look for a top-five performance on Sunday.

Test for powerful Spanish squad

But the event also acts nationally as the key selection race – alongside last weekend’s Llodio permit – for the Spanish team for the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin (13 December) where the Spaniards will be looking for a hat trick of team gold medals following their top spots accomplished last year in Brussels and the previous season (2007) on the home soil of Toro.

Despite the absences of the three-time European Cross Country silver medallist Juan Carlos De la Ossa, who underwent surgery last month and will miss the entire winter season, and Chema Martínez – focused on his Marathon career after being the leading European at the last World Championships in Berlin – the ‘red-men’ should still be regarded as favourites for the gold medal in Dublin.

Apart from Bezabeh, – who will skip Sunday’s cross since he has planned a build-up for Dublin in his native Ethiopia – the local hopes on Sunday will rest on Ayad Lamdassem as the Moroccan-born 10,000m specialist (27:45.58 PB) came seventh in Atapuerca to improve to fifth in Llodio. The 28-year-old was the top Spaniard at the last Europeans in fourth.

Other local athletes on the Dublin ticket quest include Francisco Javier López, and Manuel Penas (a 27:58.76 10,000m performer) who finished ninth and tenth in Llodio just ahead Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop; the former World Junior 10,000m record holder, also in contention in Soria, is making a return after being forced to miss the 2009 outdoor season due to a groin injury.

3000m European indoors 4th placed Sergio Sánchez, top steeplechaser Eliseo Martín and reigning European 5000m champion Jesús España are also in the line-up.

Masai unchallenged?

In the women’s section Kenya’s Linet Masai appears as the only and overwhelming favourite. The in-form reigning World 10,000m champion is fresh from a more-than convincing victory last Sunday in Llodio where she built a huge margin over the rest of the quality field.

Masai, who is also the current World Cross Country silver medallist from Amman, became a heroine for the Kenyan fans last summer when she took the World 10,000m title back to Kenya after a 12-year Ethiopian stranglehold in the event since Sally Barsosio managed the win in Athens 1997.

Still 19, Masai should not find opposition from Portugal’s Ana Dias; the experienced 35-year-old, a 16th placed at the Berlin World Championships also over 10,000m, will be making her cross country season this campaign after a 2h30:12 Marathon effort five weeks ago in Venice while the Spanish contingent will be headed by the 30-year-old steeplechaser Rosa Morató, fresh from a fourth place in Llodio and a creditable fifth at last year’s Europeans in Brussels.

Among the illustrious winners in previous years in Soria are: Ethiopia’s 2000 Olympic 5000m champion Million Wolde (1997), Kenya’s 2001 World 10,000m champion Charles Kamathi (2002), his compatriot Sally Barsosio (1994) who took the 10,000m gold medal at the 1997 Worlds in Athens, and Eritrea’s 2007 World Cross Country champion – and current bronze medallist – Zersenay Tadese who took top honours in 2004.

Weather forecasters predict a cloudy day on Sunday with almost 100% of rain likelihood and a temperature range between 6ºC and 8ºC by the time of the event. Source: (IAAF)

Tadese

Monte-Carlo – Heading the Entry List for the IAAF / EDF Energy World Half Marathon Championships which take place in Birmingham, UK on 11 October 2009, is three-time reigning champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea.

The World Half Marathon is the fifth and final IAAF World Athletics Series competition of 2009, and will bring together many of the world’s best road runners to contest this annual event.

Tadese won the first of his titles in Debrecen, Hungary in 2007, at the briefly (for two years) renamed World Road Running Championship, over the distance of 20km. He repeated his success the following year over the half marathon in the northern Italian town of Udine setting his personal best of 58:59 which still stands as the seventh quickest run of all time on courses applicable for record purposes.

The manner of the Eritrean’s third victory last year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was a picture of brilliance.

Tadese’s run was a solo venture of athletics magnitude, breaking away from a quality field after just 5km to win the first prize of US$30,000 in a time of 59:56, nearly two minutes ahead of his closest challenger, Patrick Makau Musyoki (1:01:54) who had also been a silver medallist in 2007.

Makau, the world’s fastest in 2009, is not in the Kenyan line-up this time but in the shape of Sammy Kitwara the winner of the Rotterdam Half Marathon in a PB of 58:58, the second fastest time of 2009, they still have a man more than capable of giving Tadese a run for his money in Birmingham.

Kenyan men have won nine of the 17 individual titles so far contested including victory at the inaugural World Half Marathon Championships which were also hosted in the UK on Tyneside in 1992.

Tadese, the former World Cross Country champion, has had a bit of an up and down year with his bronze medal finish at the World Cross in Amman in March followed up by the disappointment of his ‘did not finish’ in what was his marathon debut in London in April, and back up again to the elation of his World Championships silver medal over 10,000m (26:50.12) behind Kenenisa Bekele in Berlin.

Already the only three-time male winner of the World Half Marathon title, can Tadese make it number four on 11 October in Birmingham? Source: (IAAF)

Amman, Jordan: Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese makes third place at the IAAF World Cross Country Championship in Amman. The last time Tadese won the championship was in 2007. read more: