Birmingham, UK – Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea is the favourite to win the global road running title for a fourth consecutive year at the IAAF / EDF Energy World Half Marathon Championships which take place in Birmingham on Sunday 11 October 2009.

Tadese took the first of his victories in 2007 over the 20km distance at what was then the briefly (for two years) renamed the World Road Running Championships. A year later he won over the half marathon setting his personal best of 58:59 which today is the seventh quickest run of all time on courses applicable for record purposes.

Eritrea’s first ever global champion in any sport went to Rio de Janeiro last year and stomped on the hopes of his opponents with a superb solo run to record his third successive victory and collect another pay cheque of US$30,000. That sum is the winning prize at these annual championships, part of an overall US$245,000 purse available for the top six individuals and teams across the men’s and women’s races.

The 27-year-old Tadese might be seeking his fourth consecutive gold in this event when he takes to the streets of Birmingham on Sunday but he is already a four-time World champion having won the 2007 World Cross Country Championships title as well.

By not finishing his debut marathon in London this spring Tadese cast a slight shadow on his 2009 season but after his World Championships silver medal over 10,000m (26:50.12) in Berlin behind Kenenisa Bekele, anyone who imagines that Tadese, who is also this year’s World Cross Country bronze medallist, is not the firm favourite for gold in Birmingham is seriously deluding themselves.

Tadese led home his country to team silver in Rio de Janeiro but of his four compatriots last time only Teame Yemane who finished 35th in 2008 runs this weekend. However, it would be a surprise if the Eritrean team who have finished runners-up for the last four years did not do so again in Birmingham especially as Ethiopia who last won in 2005 has fielded a relatively low key team, and Qatar, the bronze medallists in Rio, have not entered any runners at all!

Kitwara leads all new Kenyan squad

Tadese, and Eritrea as a whole, face the might of the Kenyan delegation which is a totally new line-up from the squad that took gold last year. While they are without the world’s fastest runner of this year, Patrick Makau, who was individual silver medallist in the last two editions, Kenya have still lined-up a formidable team led by Sammy Kitwara, the winner of the Rotterdam Half Marathon in a PB of 58:58, the second fastest time of 2009.

Another three of the Kenyans entered also have personal bests of sub-60mins. Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich is the third fastest man in the world this year (58:59), and he is joined by Bernard Kiprop Kipyego (59:10) and Wilson Kwambai Chebet (59:15).

Kipyego is a real newcomer taking a magnificent 59:34 debut win at the distance at this year’s Berlin Half Marathon and then a fourth place finish behind Kitwara in Rotterdam, the 59:10 he recorded there making him the sixth fastest in the world in 2009.

Dos Santos approaching best shape?

Aside Tadese, of the top-8 finishers in Rio the only runner to return this year is Brazil’s two-time New York Marathon champion Marilson dos Santos. The 32-year-old who was seventh in the 2007 edition in Udine in a personal best of 59:33, was 16th at the Berlin World Championships over the full distance and in his build-up to a title defence in New York should be approaching his best shape.

Mekonnen, a blast from the past

If Ethiopia is going to mount a serious challenge then it should come from Tilahun Regassa who is only 19-years-old and has a personal best of 59:36 (2008), and from Dereje Tesfaye whose 1:00:02 was set when coming third in The Hague this spring, and he was also recently third in Glasgow too (1:01:44; 6 Sep).

And there is a blast from the past with the reappearance of Hailu Mekonnen on the international stage. Now 29 years old, Ethiopia’s former winner of two World Cross Country short course medals (1999 and 2002) has a personal best for 1500m of 3:33.14, and in his move up to the longer distances finished just ahead of Tesfaye in Glasgow in 1:01:29.

Tanzania’s squad led by 2003 and 2004 silver medallist Fabiano Joseph Naasi (PB 59:56) will be in the hunt for team medals, having last been on the podium in 2003 when they took the team title. Uganda, another team to have tasted success, bronze in 2004, will be led by stalwart Martin Toroitich who was 13th in that year.

Japan’s Atsushi Sato, a 2:07 marathoner, who with a 1:00:25 PB is the national record holder for the half marathon is another experienced competitor to watch. Sato, who has a quickest this year of 1:01:29, has run in the World Half Marathon Championships twice before, in 2002 and 2007, finishing eighth and ninth, respectively.

Ritzenhein, the dark horse?

Off the radar at the moment in terms of his personal best at the half marathon is USA’s Dathan Ritzenhein, the sixth place finisher at 10,000m at the World Championships in Berlin. The 26-year-old was the surprise of the night on the track over 5000m at this year’s ÅF Golden League meeting in Zürich. There he ran 12:56.27 to finally wipe away the long standing Area record of compatriot Bob Kennedy (12:58.21) set in Zurich on 14 August 1996. Before the race Ritzenhein’s personal best had been 13:16.06, and he is acknowledged to be a much better road racer and so his 1:01:25 personal best from 2006 is surely in for major revision this weekend.

Finally, hosts Britain will be relying on the experienced Andrew Lemoncello (1:05:17) for their best showing though their fastest entrant is Philip Wicks (1:02:51). Source: (IAAF)

Tadese & Bekele

The Olympic Stadium in Berlin tonight witnessed a showdown which was an outstanding performance by Zersenay Tadese, who proved once again that Eritreans are to be taken serious in the men’s 10,000 metre race.

Tadese finished second in 26:50.12 after a strong fight making Eritrea proud by capturing the silver medal in the “battle of the giants”. The Eritrean is the season’s best and second fastest in the world.

Amongst thirty one athletes Tadese lead the field most of the time being chased by a group of Ethiopian and Kenyan runners. After 8,000 metres Tadese and Bekele of Ethiopia fought alone for the gold medal leaving the entire field behind.

It was an Eritrean – Ethiopian race with millions of spectators watching around the globe. In a dramatic finish Bekele of Ethiopia overtook Tadese increasing his pace to a sprint and finishing first with a new championship record (26:46.31). The third place went to Moses Ndiema Masai of Kenya (25:57.94).

The second best Eritrean was Kidane Tadese, who finished ninth followed by Teklemariam Mehin who completed the race taking the twelfth position. As the commentator put it, “Zersenay Tadese is a formidable opponent”. Once again he has placed Eritrea into the spot light of international sports. Eritreans around the world were following the breath taking race with their heart beating to every step Zersenay Tadese made.  

Tadese

ASMARA – Eritrea’s long-distance runner Zersenay Tadese was such an innocent at his maiden international competition that he missed the starting pistol.

“I thought it would be like home, when the flag goes down. I didn’t know I had to start when a gun went off,” the country’s best-known athlete said, chuckling at memories of the 2002 world cross country championship in Dublin.

Zersenay was also handicapped by over-size shoes for that first big race, yet still managed a respectable 30th.

He went on to take gold in the same competition five years later, in Kenya, in a career that has won him the love of a nation and let Eritrea hold its head high next to more illustrious east African running powers Kenya and Ethiopia.

His greatest moment was bringing home Eritrea’s first Olympic medal — a bronze in the 10,000 metres at Athens 2004.

“To see my country’s flag rise, that was amazing. Yes, I have come a long way,” said Zersenay, who has also won the IAAF world half-marathon championship three times.

No wonder heads turn wherever he goes in Eritrea — Africa’s youngest nation and one of its smallest, with just 4 million people. Children clap and shout greetings as Zersenay trains on the hilltops outside the capital Asmara.

“His popularity in Eritrea is believed to be more than that of David Beckham in Britain,” one local magazine wrote adoringly.

Like many of Africa’s great runners, Zersenay’s roots are rural and humble. He tended livestock as a barefoot boy in the village of Adi Bana in southern Eritrea and laid the foundations for his running career getting to and from the 14 kms to school.

“For about two years, I would run from my house to school every morning. Coming home, I would normally walk, though sometimes too I would run the full 14 kms back,” the 27-year-old told Reuters at his home in Asmara.

“Many of us runners come from these backgrounds. It is basically the lifestyle. If you say to yourself you can do something, you have the strength and will to do it.”

CYCLING FIRST

Despite the school-run training, Zersenay’s sporting life began as a promising cyclist, another popular sport in Eritrea, until a row with team mates cut that short.

Spotted by a local teacher, he then turned to running.

Right now, the Eritrean is training to run the 10,000 metres in the world championships in Berlin in August and a half-marathon in Britain later in the year.

“My goal in the future is to break the world record for the half-marathon,” he said. “You need luck on the day though.”

He plans to run the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics after finishing fifth in the 10,000 metres in Beijing last year.

Whether he brings home more triumphs or not, Zersenay is delighted to have put Eritrea on the map and helped boost a fledgling athletics movement.

“Kenya and Ethiopia have been racing for 60 or 70 years, but us only since 2004,” he said. “Back then, we were four or five. Now there are 300 to 500 people you see every morning jogging and training. That is massive progress.”

Facilities are developing slowly in one of Africa’s smallest economies. Zersenay still trains on a track of dirt, or out in the countryside, but Asmara is soon to unveil its first asphalt track.

Married at the end of last year to a girl he met at school, Zersenay has bought a house in the capital and drives a smart, black 4×4 that looks flash next to the more humble vehicles usually seen on the streets here.

His home is packed with trophies and pictures of him with personalities ranging from Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho, who he bumped into at the Beijing Olympics.

But Zersenay has no pretensions, graciously serving an Eritrean stew on local “njera” bread to visitors from Reuters. “He is a great man. He has done great things for this nation,” said friend and running mate Efraim Ogbegbral.

“After Athens in 2004, many more athletes started, myself included. He taught me everything. He is my friend and coach.” Source: (Reuters)