RAB Developmental Athletes Compete at Ethiopian World Half-Marathon Championship Trials
RAB Developmental Athletes Compete at Ethiopian World Half-Marathon Championship Trials
The world half-marathon championships, sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), will be held on 11 October in Birmingham, UK. With every country in the world able to send up to five of its top male and female long-distance athletes, the men’s and women’s races promise to be phenomenally competitive. Another amazing event, however, is the one where Ethiopia determines who it will select for its team. On 16 August, hundreds of male and female Ethiopian runners travelled up to Sulutaa Road for the half-marathon selection race. Sulutaa Road is just 20 minutes outside of Addis Ababa, but also 400 metres uphill from it making it 2,700 metres (~9,000 ft) above sea level, air-gaspingly high by the standards of a long-distance runner. Ethiopian training programs typically feature several runs per month along Sulutaa Road, for ‘altitude training.’
Although generally short of oxygen, Sulutaa Road is extremely smooth and well-paved, and furthermore the inclines are more moderate than some of the ones faced on other Ethiopian courses. So the times in this half-marathon race are normally quite fast, and 2009 was no exception. In the men’s race, all five of the athletes selected for the world championship team finished the race in under 64 minutes. The RAB developmental athletes wisely backed off that pace, but a very impressive performance was turned in by Eshetu Gemechu, finishing 88th in 1:05:57. There are few races in the world where 80 runners finish between 64 and 66 minutes. Eshetu, the Arsi Zone Half-Marathon Champion in 2008, capitalized on his first opportunity to race at the distance since joining the RAB camp in April.
Not far behind were Eda’o Hussen and Endale Mekonnen, who finished 100th in 1:07:13 and 105th in 1:07:52 respectively. Eda’o has excelled at the 10000m distance in the past and has also greatly impressed the RAB coaches in training sessions, but today showed the beginning of his potential at a longer distance. Endale meanwhile found the competition to be substantially tougher than what he faced when finishing 3rd in the Oromia Region Half-Marathon Championships back in February. In the end, however, it was great that all three of the young men got the opportunity to finally race against truly the best runners in Ethiopia in an open competition. Every race up until now had either been a junior competition, a relay race, or a regional-level championship. National trials are the real deal; they were 2-4 minutes behind the best runners in the country, but at least they saw where they need to rise to over the next several years in the RAB camp.
Meanwhile in the women’s race RAB sent the lone contestant of Dinkinesh Mekash. She showed once again that she is getting closer every week to challenging Ethiopia’s top female runners, crossing the line 32nd in 1:18:28. Her durability as an athlete is impressive, as she has handled some of the hardest routines Coach Melaku has thrown at her, and gotten stronger from it. We will see her run more half-marathons in the future, and in all likelihood the full marathon before too long.
Sidelined for RAB on the men’s side were Aman, Mesfin, and Yared. Aman has been experiencing pain in his left gluteal muscle ever since performing impressively in three consecutive 5k/10k races in late June into July. Each of those races held an important opportunity that RAB coaches and directors felt he could not afford to miss, but the injury suggests that over-racing needs to be avoided more carefully in the future. Fortunately thanks to the sports massage expertise of Coach Melaku, Aman has been quickly returned to training and will prepare for upcoming road races this fall. For Mesfin, meanwhile, Achilles tendinopathy has afflicted him strongly since July, however a series of carefully-prescribed rehabilitation exercises have him on the right track and he has resumed training. Yared, finally, has begun the first full marathon training cycle of his career, and will race at a site to be determined this fall.
On the women’s side Dunkane and Halima were held out of the half-marathon trials due to under-preparation for the longer distances. Both were selected for RAB based on 10k times under 37 minutes, however their capacity to train for longer races has proven to be limited during their initial months in the RAB camp. In addition they have both raced on cross-country and dirt tracks their entire careers; a half-marathon on asphalt would have been a major change. They have progressed well in the lower-volume training, and the fall season will offer some cross-country races as well as shorter-distance road races for them. It is uncertain whether their future will include moving up to the half-marathon distance or sticking to the shorter events.
Seada, meanwhile, was also held out due to being somewhat under-prepared. She has maintained higher-volume training along with Dinkinesh, and run on her teammate’s shoulder in many long training sessions. However she has not responded as quickly or as dramatically to the training as Dinkinesh, which has created a sense of frustration and disappointment. Approaching Sulutaa Melaku made the decision to hold Seada out in order to avoid amplifying these feelings. He commented: ‘I advised her there are so many races to participate. We also are trying to listen her body and start giving special training.’
So although RAB hoped to be represented in greater numbers at the Sulutaa Half-Marathon, the results were overall encouraging, and highlighted by a top-35 finish from Dinkinesh on the women’s side as well as a time just 2 minutes off the lead group by Eshetu on the men’s. Stay tuned as the team begins its autumn racing season in October!
Results:
Men:
Eshetu Gemechu 88th pos. 1:05:57
Edeo Hussen 100th pos.1:07:13
Endale Mekonnin 105 pos. 1:07:52
Women:
Dinkinesh Mekash 32 pos. 1:18:28
Total Participants: Male-554 Female-168
Source: Ethiopian Athletics Federation
News
