Cross Country World Championships 2001

The 29th IAAF World Cross Country Championships the IAAF took place on 24 and 25 March 2001 in Ostend ( Belgium instead).

The event was originally scheduled to take place in Dublin , but had to be rescheduled at short notice due to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Ireland .

course

The venue was the Wellington Hippodrome, where the Belgian Cross Country Championship had been held two weeks earlier. The run was on a 1.8 km long standard lap, which was supplemented by a 500 m long starting straight. For the men in the endurance competition, the standard lap was extended to 2.5 km after one run through an additional loop.

A total of 12.3 km for the men on the long distance, 7.7 km for the juniors and women on the long distance, 5.9 km for the juniors and 4.1 km for the short distance runners of both sexes had to be mastered.

The ground was soaked from days of rain. In addition, the runners had to deal with cold and violent winds.

Competitions

The junior women's race, the men's short-distance race and the women's long-distance race took place on March 24th, and the other three races on the following day.

In the men's short-distance race, individual and team gold went to Kenya for the fourth time in a row, with only one other runner able to place between the six-person team: The Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele ousted Benjamin Limo , the 1999 world champion, from silver in the last few meters and ran two seconds behind Enock Koech , who had arrived as a Kenyan champion. Otherwise only the Australian Craig Mottram could assert himself in the top group; he was eighth with just six seconds behind the bronze rank. The ninth, Brahim Boulami from Morocco, was already eleven seconds behind Mottram.

Record winner Paul Tergat , who was just preparing for his marathon premiere , was missing on the long distance . In front of his home crowd, Mohammed Mourhit managed to defend his title by running out a clear lead on the penultimate lap. In the fight for the silver medal, Serhij Lebid was in the lead in the end, overtaking Charles Waweru Kamathi, who was seventh last year and the reigning European champion Paulo Guerra , in the last 200 meters . It was the first time since 1984 that two Europeans stood on the podium for the men.

For women, the decision on the long distance was made between two-time world champion Gete Wami and Paula Radcliffe , who had previously won two silver and one bronze. When the British pulled away from the rest of the field at the beginning of the last lap, only the Ethiopian could follow her, who then overtook on the home straight and started on her dreaded final sprint, with which she already gave Radcliffe in the 10,000-meter race at the 1999 World Cup and had beaten the 2000 Olympics. This time, however, Radcliffe countered and became the first British adult female winner since Zola Budd in 1986 with a three-second lead .

Also on the short distance Gete Wami and Paula Radcliffe made it out to win after they had overtaken the rest of the field on the second lap. This time the Ethiopian waited longer until her final attack and was one second ahead of the game.

In the junior division, Kenenisa Bekele won the short-distance adult race one day after his silver medal. With six wins on the long distance and five on the short distance, he was to become the dominant runner for the next few years. As a bronze medalist, the American Dathan Ritzenhein was the first non-East African junior on the podium since 1984.

Results

Men

Long haul

Individual evaluation

space	athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Mohammed Mourhit	BEL	39:53
2	Serhiy Lebid	UKR	40:03
3	Charles Waweru Kamathi	KEN	40:05
4th	Paulo Guerra	POR	40:06
5	Paul Malakwen Kosgei	KEN	40:09
6th	Driss El Himer	FRA	40:13
7th	Patrick Mutuku Ivuti	KEN	40:16
8th	Hélder Ornelas	POR	40:33

Of 174 registered athletes, 169 started and 159 reached the finish.

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Total points and individual placement
1	Kenya Charles Waweru Kamathi Paul Malakwen Kosgei Patrick Mutuku Ivuti Enock Mitei	33 0 3 05 07 18
2	France Driss El Himer Mustapha El Ahmadi Lyes Ramoul Mickaël Thomas	72 0 6 11 26 29
3	United States Bob Kennedy Mebrahtom Keflezighi Abdihakem Abdirahman Nicholas Rogers	87 12 13 15 47

A total of 27 teams were rated.

Short haul

Individual evaluation

space	athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Enock Koech	KEN	12:40
2	Kenenisa Bekele	ETH	12:42
3	Benjamin soda	KEN	12:43
4th	Sammy Kipketer	KEN	12:44
5	Cyrus Kataron	KEN	12:45
6th	Albert Chepkurui	KEN	12:46
7th	John Kemboi Kibowen	KEN	12:49
8th	Craig Mottram	OUT	12:49

Out of 169 registered athletes, 157 started and 156 reached the finish.

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Total points and individual placement
1	Kenya Enock Koech Benjamin Limo Sammy Kipketer Cyrus Kataron	13 0 1 03 04 05
2	Morocco Brahim Boulami Adil Kaouch Mohamed Saïd El Wardi Mohammed Amyn	48 0 9 11 12 16
3	Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele Hailu Mekonnen Dagne Alemu Alemayehu Girma	51 0 2 10 13 26

A total of 26 teams were rated.

Women

Long haul

Individual evaluation

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Paula Radcliffe	GBR	27:49
2	Gete Wami	ETH	27:52
3	Lydia Cheromei	KEN	28:07
4th	Susan Chepkemei	KEN	28:13
5	Pamela Chepchumba	KEN	28:20
6th	Leah Malot	KEN	28:36
7th	Yamna Oubouhou-Belkacem	FRA	28:40
8th	Merima Denboba	ETH	28:52

Out of 110 registered athletes, 107 started, all of them reaching the finish.

As the only participant from a German-speaking country, Austrian Sandra Baumann came in 47th place (30:59).

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Total points and individual placement
1	Kenya Lydia Cheromei Susan Chepkemei Pamela Chepchumba Leah Malot	18 0 3 04 05 06
2	Ethiopia Gete Wami Merima Denboba Eyerusalem Kuma Leila Aman	70 0 2 08 23 37
3	France Yamna Oubouhou-Belkacem Rakiya Maraoui-Quétier Rodica Daniela Moroianu Zahia Dahmani	77 0 7 11 24 35

A total of 18 teams were rated.

Short haul

Individual evaluation

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Gete Wami	ETH	14:46
2	Paula Radcliffe	GBR	14:47
3	Edith Masai	KEN	14:57
4th	Merima Denboba	ETH	15:04
5	Werknesh Kidane	ETH	15:06
6th	Benita Willis	OUT	15:06
7th	Carla Sacramento	POR	15:07
8th	Rose Cheruiyot	KEN	15:07

Of 118 registered athletes, 114 started and 113 reached the finish.

As the only participant from a German-speaking country, the Swiss Sabine Fischer came in 17th place (15:36).

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Total points and individual placement
1	Ethiopia Gete Wami Merima Denboba Werknesh Kidane Genet Gebregiorgis	26 0 1 04 05 16
2	Kenya Edith Masai Rose Cheruiyot Margaret Ngotho Naomi Mugo	32 0 3 08 10 11
3	Romania Elena Fidatof Iulia Olteanu Maria Cristina Grosu Mihaela Botezan	78 13 15 23 27

A total of 19 teams were rated.

Juniors

Individual evaluation

space	athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Kenenisa Bekele	ETH	25:04
2	Duncan Lebo	KEN	25:37
3	Dathan Ritzenhein	United States	25:46

Of 154 registered athletes, 152 started and 149 reached the finish.

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Total points and individual placement
1	Kenya Duncan Lebo Nicholas Kemboi Robert Kipkorir Kipchumba Edwin Koech	24 0 2 04 06 12
2	Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele Alemayehu Tedla Terefe Maregu Beruk Debrework	25 0 1 07 08 09
3	Uganda Paul Wakou Tonny Okello Francis Musani Moses Mpanga	68 10 16 19 23

A total of 25 teams were rated.

Juniors

Individual evaluation

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Viola Jelagat Kibiwot	KEN	22:05
2	Abebech Negussie	ETH	22:05
3	Aster Bacha	ETH	22:05

Of 130 registered athletes, 126 started and 123 reached the finish.

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Total points and individual placement
1	Ethiopia Abebech Negussie Aster Bacha Tirunesh Dibaba Tereza Yohannes	16 0 2 03 05 06
2	Kenya Viola Jelagat Kibiwot Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot Fridah Chepkemoi Domongole Sally Kipyego	20 0 1 04 07 08
3	Japan Naoko Sakata Tomomi Tagao Emi Ikeda Mika Matsumoto	59 11 13 17 18

A total of 21 teams were rated.

Web links

• IAAF World Cross Country Championships Ostend 2001 on the IAAF website
• Senior Men's race (Long course) ( Memento of October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Senior Men's race (Short course) ( Memento of October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Senior Women's race (Long course) ( Memento of 16. October 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Senior Women's race (Short course) ( Memento from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Junior Men's race ( Memento from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Junior Women's race ( Memento from October 16 2007 on the Internet Archive ) - results on the Athchamps website

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 28 ″  N , 2 ° 54 ′ 2 ″  E