Ethiopian Ayele Abshero, last year's silver medalist in the men's junior race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, moved up to the top of the podium today at this year's championships in Amman, Jordan.
As usual, the race went out fast with 18 men passing 2 km in 5:14 to 5:15. Abshero was at the back of that back which was led by Eritrea's Goitom Kifle. By 4 km (11:09), 11 men remained in contention, and Abshero was now running 8th. Kenyan Titus Kipjumba Mbishei, last year's fifth place finisher, was leading the race. Mbishei managed to drop everybody but five rivals by the end of the third lap (16:55), and Abshero had now moved up to fourth. That put the Ethiopian in perfect position to win in 23:26, four seconds up on Mbishei. Ugandan Moses Kibet got the bronze another five seconds back.
Mbishei will still leave Amman with a gold medal, however. His Kenyan team finished 2-4-5-9 to take the team title over Ethiopia, 20 to 22 points. Eritrea, whose top finisher (Goitom) was only 14th, managed to get the bronze with 72 points, ten fewer than Uganda.
Outside the African nations, the United States had the best showing. Oklahoma State's German Fernandez was the top non-African finisher in 11th place, despite suffering from a stress reaction in his foot which had him in a boot during the week. Stanford's Chris Derrick finished 15th giving the USA a fifth place team finish.
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