Ethiopian youngster Worku Fantu obliterated the final kilometer of the beautiful course in Aarhus Denmark, to pick gold for Ethiopia
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 30 – Failure to deal with a punishing uphill climb in the home stretch saw Ethiopia pick the Mixed Relays gold as defending champions Kenya surrendered the title they won two years ago in Kampala, settling for bronze as Morocco bagged silver at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark on Saturday.
Ethiopian youngster Worku Fantu obliterated the final kilometer of the beautiful but tough course in Aarhus to pick gold for Ethiopia, with Morocco overtaking Kenya at the home bend with Winfred Mbithe only just managing to come in third.
However, the Moroccans were stripped of the silver after being adjudged to have changed over wrongly with Kenya upgraded to silver while USA who had finished bronze squeezed into the podium to third.
But in an event full of drama, Morocco successfully appealed and were awarded their silver back as Kenya retained their third spot.
As though a well worked tact among the Ethiopians, they let the Kenyans enjoy the lead in the early opening exchanges of each loop before they showed their resilience and superb strength to combat the hill section with utmost comfort.
World and Olympic steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto started up for Kenya who were the defending champions with Ethiopian Kebede Endale sticking to his back.
-Strength fade
At the hilly section, Kipruto saw his strength fade with Kebede powering past him and establishing a four-second lead by the time he was changing over to Bone Cheluke.
Conseslus stuck to second and changed over to Jarinter Mwasya, who made some good work to re-take the lead. But, it was same script different cast at the uphill section, Cheluke once again powering her way into the lead.
World 1500m champion Elijah Manangoi took over from Mwasya and he showed some determination to bridge the gap and once see Kenya take the lead.
At the hill climb Manangoi tried to stick to the lead, digging deep into his energy reserves to keep track. But Ethiopian Lemi Tadesse did just like his two team-mates, digging up the hill easily to ensure Ethiopia were at the lead in the final changeover.
-Fantu show dominance
It was Fantu however, who showed dominance, letting Mbithe take the lead for the first half of the race before she powered her engines to open up a huge gap.
Mbithe could not sustain the tempo and the Moroccans managed to catch up and pip her for bronze.
