Medhin and Kalovics impress over the
country in San Sebastián
Eritrea’s Teklemarian Medhin wins in San
Sebastián, Spain (Mertxe Sueskun)
San Sebastián, Spain - Eritrea’s Teklemarian Medhin and Hungary’s
Aniko Kalovics snatched unchallenged victories at the ‘54th
Cross Internacional de San
Sebastián’ held on Sunday (25) on a
windy and rainy day for weather.
MEN – Medhin, a star in the making?
In the men’s 10km event Kenya’s Micah Kogo was
regarded the pre-race favourite as the reigning Olympic 10,000m bronze
medallist had already proved to be in fine form this winter following a hat
trick of successes in Houilles (28 December), Trier (31 Dec) and more
recently in Le Mans (18 January).
With rain, and wind gusts of over 100km per hour, the
race kicked off conservatively at the 7km point a large group of seven
athletes were still in contention - the Kenyan pair of Kogo and last
year’s victor Kiprono Menjo, Ukraine’s Sergey
Lebid, the Spanish trio of Carlos Castillejo, José Ríos and Iván Galán, and
the 19-year-old Medhin. The Eritrean was fresh from a respectable seventh
place at the IAAF
XC permit in Seville
last Sunday (18) against one of the high quality cross country fields assembled this
season.
Ríos and Castillejo made most of the pace but the
Africans and Lebid ran effortlessly at their shoulders.
Medhin, who is coached in Madrid by Jerónimo Bravo, made his move
with 22 minutes on the clock and from then on he startled a knowledgeable crowd
which over the decades have witnessed performances here from legends such
as Mamo Wolde,
David Bedford, John Ngugi and Derartu Tulu.
Such was the terrific pace dictated by Medhin that not
even the in-form Kogo managed to stay touch with the gifted Eritrean, who
extended his lead over the closing three kilometres.
Kogo, Menjo and Lebid formed the chasing group with Kogo
making the pace duties but with one kilometre left Lebid faltered and lost
ground with the Kenyan pair.
While the long-legged Medhin, who won the Fuensalida XC
race on 11 January, ran smoothly at the front, the interest turned to the
fierce battle for the minor places between Kogo and Menjo with the former
prevailing thanks to a late burst of speed with 150m to go.
Medhin was timed at 31:47 with a six-second margin of
victory on Kogo, holder of an impressive 10,000m track PB of 26:35.63,
while the ‘defending champion’ Menjo had to settle for third on
this occasion another five second in arrears.
The efforts of the eight-time European XC champion Lebid
were not enough to challenge for a podium place although he bounced back
from last year’s below par performance when he suffered fever and was
never a factor at all in the race. The 33-year-old Ukrainian took fourth on
this occasion some 17 seconds behind the winner but still 20 seconds ahead Spain’s
former European 10,000m bronze medallist José Ríos, who completed a
classy top-five.
Furtuna zegergish also did excellent in Spain
finishing fifth.
WOMEN – Kalovics overcomes all barriers to
succeed
The women’s 5.8km contest offered an interesting
clash between some top Europeans such as Hungary’s Aniko Kalovics
plus the Spanish duo of 2007 European XC champion Marta Domínguez and Rosa Morató,
who claimed bronze on that occasion, who were up against Kenya’s
Olympic 3000m Steeplechase silver medallist Eunice Jepkorir and
Morocco’s Soud Kambouchia, a 28th finisher at last year’s World
XC championships in Edinburgh.
Kalovics’s first success was to be able to get to San Sebastian
on time. The 31-year-old Hungarian had been scheduled to travel to Spain via Nice but she lost her connection
there due to the very bad weather throughout a large part of South Europe over the weekend. However, Kalovics was
determined to perform on Sunday and so she decided to travel by car to
reach San Sebastián
as late as 2am of the event’s day.
Unlike in the men’s race, Kalovics, an
accomplished performer over muddy surfaces, killed the event as a
competition right from the gun and gave no options to her opponents by setting
a hot pace which simply could not be matched by any other athlete.
With the clock reading eight minutes Kalovics
had already built a sizeable margin of 12 seconds over a six-athlete
chasing group which was headed by Eritrea’s Fortuna Zegerghis and Domínguez
but soon that pack decreased to three units in the guise of the Spaniard,
Kambouchia and Jepkorir.
By then the tireless Kalovics kept on her solo run and
maintained a comfortable advantage of 80m over her pursuers. Over the final
lap it was the Spain-based Kambouchia who pushed hard and managed to leave
top steeplechasers Domínguez and Jepkorir way back.
At the finish
line Kalovics’s winning margin was 11 seconds on
Kambouchia, herself another 9 seconds clear of Domínguez, who kept last
year’s victor Jepkorir at bay to claim the minor place on the podium.
It has been a busy January for Kalovics, who clinched
top spot in San Giorgio Su Legnano (EA permit) on 6
January before taking runner-up position in Elgoibar (11 Jan) and a 6th
place in Seville (IAAF permit) last 18 January.
Women (5.8km)
1. Aniko Kalovics (Hungary)
18:45
2. Soud Kambouchia (Morocco)
18:56
3. Marta Domínguez (Spain)
19:05
4. Eunice Jepkorir (Kenya)
19:11
5. Fortuna Zegerghis (Eritrea) 19:17
6. Rosa Morató (Spain)
19:21
7. Tatiana Holovchenko (Ukraine)
19:22
8. Judit Plá (Spain)
19:36
9. Gema Barrachina (Spain) 19:49
10. Elena Moreno (Spain)
20:43
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