18th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships - Birmingham 2009

News

IAAF World Half Marathon – Men’s Race Preview

09 Oct 2009

A memorable piece of athletics history could be written on the streets of Birmingham on Sunday when the IAAF/EDF Energy World Half Marathon Championships are staged in the city. Zersenay Tadese, a former cyclist from Eritrea, is accustomed to making unprecedented national news but now an international first beckons.

Already the first man to win three individual world road running titles, the 27-year-old Tadese is aiming to become the first athlete of either sex to claim four. Three women have won three – Tegla Loroupe (Kenya), Paula Radcliffe (Great Britain) and Lornah Kiplagat (the Netherlands) – but none runs on Sunday.

In 2004, Tadese became the first Eritrean to win an Olympic medal. In 2005, he won the country’s first global athletics gold, taking his first world title on the only occasion in the championships’ 17-year history when the races were not held over the half marathon distance. Tadese won that day over 20km

Tadese successfully defended his title in 2007 but not before becoming Eritrea’s first World Cross Country champion with a shock win over Ethiopia’s multiple champion Kenenisa Bekele. A third victory in 2008 marks him out as the man to beat among the 102 athletes from 37 countries entered for the men’s race.

Furthermore, Tadese could become only the second man after Kenya’s Paul Tergat, 10 years ago, to win World Championship medals on three different surfaces in one year. Already this year Tadese has finished third in the World Cross Country Championships, in Amman, Jordan, and runner-up over 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships, in Berlin.

One thing is guaranteed before Tadese starts. Birmingham is poised to put on an outstanding event. The city, which hosts the UK Championships each summer, and has recently staged both European and World Indoor Championships, will stage another display of world class athletics event management

First off, at 09.00, are the women. The men’s race starts at 09.30. The runners follow a route that starts and finishes on Broad Street, near Centenary Square, in the heart of the city centre. The course takes in major landmarks and includes a lap around Cannon Hill Park. The competitors will also run past Cadbury World and the Cadbury factory in Bournville.

Tadese’s predecessor as champion, Fabiano Joseph Naasi, from Tanzania, returns to the event having failed to build on his extraordinary early half marathon career. In 2003, at 17, he became – and remains – the youngest medallist, finishing runner-up as he led Tanzania to team gold.

Second again in 2004, in 2005 Joseph became – and remains – the youngest champion at 19. However, since 2005, he has appeared in these championships only once, finishing 11th in 2007. But a breakthrough sub one hour half marathon last year (59:56) suggests he is not content to rest on his achievements as a teenager.

That said, probably the greatest danger to Tadese is posed by Sammy Kirop Kitwara, the second fastest half marathoner of the year. In the absence of 2009 World No.1 Patrick Makau, Kitwara leads a Kenyan squad which looks unbeatable for the team title.

Kitwara’s route to Birmingham could hardly have been more different from the one taken by Tadese. While Tadese appeared in Amman and Berlin, Kitwara missed out on both trips, narrowly failing to gain a place in the Kenyan team for the World Cross Country and being stripped of his place in the team for Berlin.

After winning the national 10,000m trial, Kitwara was dropped after the selectors disapproved of his decision to run a road race in Atlanta a week later. Now, belatedly making his debut for Kenya, when it ought to have come against Bekele in Berlin, Kitwara said of facing Tadese: “My time has come to meet another great champion.”

The non-African challenge seems likely to be led by two Japanese, Yoshinori Oda and Atsushi Sato, and one American, Dathan Ritzenhein. Teamwise, Kenya posses four of the fastest five athletes entered, leaving a four-way fight between South Africa, Ethiopia, Japan and Eritrea for the team silver and bronze places. Three athletes score on cumulative time.

The challenge is immense for the Aviva GB and NI squad of Andrew Jones, Andrew Lemoncello, Mark Miles, Gareth Raven and Philip Wicks. However, the title of top European nation is not out of reach if at least three of the team can rise to the occasion of a home championship.