News Archive

Traditionally one of the highest class New Year’s Eve races took place in

Bozen. It was the Olympic marathon champion Stefano Baldini who was defeated in

front of his home crowd. The Italian lost the sprint against the Ukrainian

Sergej Lebed, who had won the European Cross Country Championships for the

fifth time some weeks ago. On the 10 k lap through the small south Tyrol city

Lebed finished after 28:23 minutes. Baldini was second with the same time in

front of the US American Dathan Ritzehein (28:24), who had set the pace for a

long time.

Sergej Lebed also beat a second world class marathon runner in Bozen: Jaouad

Gharib (Morocco/28:54), the Marathon World Champion from 2003 in Paris,

followed in fourth place. „I have not experienced the fact that three non

African runners took the first three places in such a road race for years. That

was a real surprise for me”, Sergej Lebed said. He will concentrate on

preparing for the World Cross Country Championships in March. For Stefano

Baldini the London Marathon in April will be the main focus. Among others he

will meet Evans Rutto. It was the Kenyan and not the Italian Olympic Champion

who was recently named as the best marathon runner of 2004 by British athletics

magazines ‚Athletics Today’ and ‚Athletics

International’.

In the 5 k women’s race Berhane Adere showed, that one can count on

her for the indoor season. The Ethiopian 10,000 m World Champion of 2003 won

the New Year’s Eve race in 16:14 minutes with a three second winning

margin in front of Edith Masai (Kenya). Third was Merima Denboba (Ethiopia) in

16:25.

The New Year’s Eve race in Madrid became an Australian affair. Craig

Mottram won the 10 k event in 28:18 minutes and defeated the Kenyan Marathon

world record holder Paul Tergat. In the women’S race it was the World

Cross Country Champion Benita Johnson who came back after a disappointing

marathon debut in New York (2:38:03). In a time of 32:35 minutes she defeated

the Olympic Marathon silver medallist Catherine Ndereba (Kenya/33:18).

But of course there was some success for the Kenyans as well on New

Year’s Eve: The traditional Sao Paulo event saw Robert Cheruiyot winning

for the second time after 2002. He ran the 15 k race in 44:43 minutes and

finished the race with a big margin. Second was the Australian Sisay Bezabeh

(45:06), while Stephen Biwott (Kenya) was third in 45:28. The women’s

winner was well clear of her rivals as well: Lydia Cheromei (Kenya) ran 53:01

minutes in what was her third Sao Paulo triumph. Lucelia de Oliveira Peres

(Brasil/54:18) became second.

In New York’s Central Park there is a race at midnight on New

Year’s Eve as well. Christian Hersch (US) repeated his victory from a

year ago. He clocked 18:28 minutes on the four mile lap (6,4 k). Amy Rudolph

(US) was the fastest woman with a course record of 21:17 minutes.