World Athletics Cross Country Championships – News – Kiplimo, Chebet Win Senior Titles At World Athletics Cross Country Championships

   NOTE: This story was written remotely –Ed.

(18-Feb) — At the 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships today in Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia, athletes were humbled by the extraordinary tough course, searing heat, and gusting winds.  But in the end, Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda and Beatrice Chebet of Kenya prevailed in the all-important senior 10-K races taking home the gold medals with dramatic last-lap racing.  Kiplimo, 22, moved up from the silver medal at the last edition of these championships in Aarhus, Denmark four years ago, while Chebet, also 22, added the senior gold medal to the Under-20 title she earned in Aarhus.  Chebet also earned a team gold medal today (Kiplimo won bronze).

GIDEY FALTERS IN FINAL METERS

Reigning world champion in the 10,000m, Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, put on a master class in how to attack a championships cross country race for more than 30 minutes today.  She stayed back in the early laps, running in only 15th place after 2-K and ninth after 4-K.  She allowed the Ugandan and Kenyan squads to control the pace while she kept close watch on the leaders and bided her time.  

At the end of the third circuit (6-K), Gidey was in a pack of 12 led by her teammate Tsigie Gebreselama, eventual winner Chebet, Uganda’s Prisca Chesang, and Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich and Grace Loibach Nawowuna.  Gidey was running in seventh position now and had yet to really assert herself.  Indeed, she waited until the end of the next lap where Nawowuna and Chebet had broken the race open and pulled away up the course’s steepest hill, dubbed The Boomerang.  Slicing through the short section where the athletes ran between two rows of grape vines, Gidey seemed to be in full control.  She took the final hairpin turn then successfully navigated the section called The Chicane where the athletes had to zig-zag between rows of piled automobile tires.  Victory looked certain.

But in the final homestretch, which had a series of small berms, Gidey suddenly looked unstable on her feet.  With only about 25 meters left in the race, with Chebet charging hard behind her, Gidey’s legs simply went out from under her and she collapsed to the turf.  She lay there for a few seconds, apparently dazed, while Chebet whisked past her to get the win in 33:48. …