Bekele injury proves a blessing in disguise at Capital race

Published on Monday 12 January 2009 09:13

EVEN though he was not there, the multi world champion Kenenisa Bekele was able to help race promoter Andy Caine beat the credit crunch at windy Holyrood Park on Saturday.

In the absence due to a stress fracture of the three times winner of the Great Edinburgh race, who can command huge fees wherever he runs, Caine was able to afford to bring in much bigger quality fields.

"It was obviously disappointing not to have Bekele but it meant that I could bring in a whole lot more world-class athletes – we had eight or nine World medallists plus European champion Sergey Lebid," explained the former Scottish cross country international.

The stars duly delivered with the men's race, won by the Ethiopian Abebe Dinkesa after a supercharged last lap, arguably the better without his all-conquering fellow-countryman.

The women's 5.6 kilometres race was always going to be strong. Edinburgh's Freya Murray, who wants to make the British team for the next World Championships in Amman, Jordan, in March, having missed out on both the recent European in Brussels last month and the last World Cross in Edinburgh last March, was not complaining and certainly did her chances no harm.

Murray made a bold bid to stay with the leading group for as long as she could and was rewarded with ninth place in 19 minutes 59 seconds, 57 seconds down on 19-year-old winner Linet Masai of Kenya but five seconds ahead of fellow Scot Laura Kenny, who was in the GB senior team in Brussels.

Murray was also ten seconds clear of the European under-23 silver medallist Sarah Tunstall, who was 11th.

"I felt really good – my training has been going well and I felt really fresh," said the 25-year-old Heriot-Watt University graduate who is now based in Chester-Le-Street, County Durham.

"I've not beaten Laura for a while – I've been feeling so much more confident and I just went out and enjoyed it on my home course and in front of my home crowd where the support's always good."

That confidence was shown by the way Murray, third in Antrim the previous Saturday, moved forward with the Antrim winner and European Junior champion Steph Twell to cover a gap: "I was determined not to go off too fast at the start and after Steph and I moved up I was pleased I was able to hold my position for the rest of the race and hang on at the back of the pack for as long as I could."

Aldershot's Twell, 19, whose mother comes from Paisley and who has admitted talking to Scottish athletics officials about running for Scotland in next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, went on to finish fourth as she did last year. The race was won by the majestic Kenyan Linet Masai, another teenage prodigy with a CV even more impressive than Twell's, including bronze in the Edinburgh World Cross last year followed by fourth in a World Junior record in the Olympic 10,000 metres in Beijing.

With Masai now in full flow out in front, the battling Twell got back on terms with the two minor medallists going up the final hill only to be outkicked going down the slope, with Mestewat Tufa (Ethiopia) taking the silver and Viola Kibiwott (Kenya) the bronze. "I really need to work on my finish," said Twell.

In the men's 8.9k race Dinkesa took off like a startled rabbit at the sound of the bell and, though chased by two Kenyans, Eliud Kipchoge, a former winner, and Magata Ndiwa, the 24-year-old 2004 Great Ethiopian Run winner, never looked like being caught.

"I won it too easily," he claimed. "I knew the course from last year and was able to look back and control it."

Behind him a flagging Kipchoge was caught for the bronze by Eritrean hero Tadese, whose hopes of a first Great Edinburgh win after two successive silvers behind Bekele were probably dashed by the 150 miles per week he has been putting in as prep for his marathon debut in London in April. Ndiwa just held him off for more silver in the 400 metres dash down from Haggis Knowe, where the wind had at times reached 50mph.

Frank Tickner (Thames Valley) confirmed his form as first Briton in Brussels by coming through to place 11th in 27 minutes 41 seconds, 50 seconds down on Dinkesa, with top Scot Andrew Lemoncello 12 seconds back. "I didn't feel so good as last week when I was third in Antrim," said the Fife AC member, whose next race is a half marathon in Austin (Texas).

There was a promising run from Capital teenager Chris O'Hare (EAC), who was just three seconds down on the Scottish senior champion Mark Pollard (13:08) in 17th place in the senior men's 4k.

Last year's winner and the world fastest miler in 2008, England's Andy Baddeley, survived being accidentally tripped before bursting clear at the end of the two short laps for a relatively easy victory in 12:17.