Friday 4 January 2008

Race organisers have assembled a solid collection of the international cross country crème for the ‘54th Cross Internacional Zornotza’ which takes place on Sunday (6) in Amorebieta (Spain) barely 25 kilometres away from the world-famous Guggenheim museum.

In the men’s race, it is very much a matter of Ethiopia’s Tariku Bekele versus a slew of top Kenyans athletes headed by the in-form Joseph Ebuya, last year’s winner Micah Kogo and Moses Masai. Unlike previous seasons, the younger Bekele will be making his Cross Country debut as late as 6 January and he should be eager to take revenge of last year’s defeat in Amorebieta when he finished runner-up out-sprinted by Kogo.

2007 podium trio returns

Tariku Bekele, who will turn 21 later this month, showed a high Cross Country standard last year when taking second to his older brother Kenenisa at the IAAF permit held in Seville on his 20th birthday. However, he could not finish the race at the Worlds in Mombasa in his first appearance as a senior athlete at the championships. With regard to his track performances he grabbed a praiseworthy fifth at the Osaka Worlds in his specialist event (5000m) where he holds a PB of 12:53.81 from 2006.

But likely the man to beat on Sunday’s is Ebuya, who completed a quality podium in 2007 taking third. The...