East Africa rivals Kenya and Ethiopia carry the strongest hope for Africa to maintain its supremacy at the 35th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cross-Country Championships in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya, this weekend.
Mombasa, which was selected from a pool of cities across the world, becomes the third African city to host the annual event after Cape Town (1996) and Marrakech, Morocco (1998).
With a galaxy of runners drawn from more than 66 countries, much talk is centred on the Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes, who boast the best credentials to win individual and team event titles.
Kenyan runners were, perhaps, the first on the continent to show the world that Africans were hard to beat in cross-country and other long-distance running events.
Brilliant runners such as John Ngugi, William Sigei, Paul Targat and John Kibowen were the leading lights of a young generation of runners — a group that is steadily increasing in numbers on the African continent.
Over the years, Ethiopia has emerged as home to some of the continent’s and the world’s best middle- and long-distance runners.
Female runners also quickly reached the forefront, with Deratu Tulu of Ethiopia and the Kenyan duo of Helen Chepnengo and Edith Masai posting impressive results on the international scene.
For the team prize, each country has to enter six athletes, with only four scoring the points for the side.
The star attraction is Olympic medallist Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who was twice crowned IAAF Male Athlete of the Year and has won no fewer than five double cross-country titles in consecutive years.
Shortly after winning both the long- and short-course world cross-country events in 2006, the Ethiopian running machine announced that they were his last events. He felt there was nothing left for him to prove.
But international pressure, sports federations and friends persuaded Bekele to change his mind so that he could continue to delight on-site spectators and the huge television audiences that enjoy seeing the remarkable athlete in action.
Bekele, also a huge favourite for the men’s title, will have compatriots such as the highly capable Sileshe Sihine sharing in his quest to clinch the team prize for Ethiopia.
The Kenyan challenge will be spearheaded by 2001 world 5 000m champion Eliud Kipchoge and will also include Michael Kipyego, Hillary Kiprono and Hosea Macharingag.
The Kenyans have practised on the route several times and will be out in force to tame the Ethiopians and regain their status as the giants of the African continent.
Boniface Kiprop and Moses Kipsro from Uganda, veteran John Yuda Fabien Joseph from Tanzania, and Eritrea’s Zersanay Tadesse add to what is a significantly East African affair.
Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, Olympic medallist and current 5 000m indoor world-record holder, will start as the favourite to take the senior women’s 8km race.
Dibaba had a flying start to the year, breaking her own record at the Boston Indoor Games in the United States in January. She will be hard to beat, but she faces strong challenges from compatriots Gelete Burika, Melkamu Meselech and Tufa Mestawet.
Uganda’s Commonwealth Games and world 3 000m steeplechase champion, Dorcas Inzikuru, and Kenyans Prisca Jepleting and Pamela Chepchumba also form part of the elite class in the senior women’s 8km event.
However, not everything will be all that easy for the African runners, who will contend with former Africans now running for their adopted homelands in return for bigger purses.
Prominent on this list are former Kenyan Stephen Cherono, now competing for Qatar as Saed Saief Shaheen, Somalian Mohammed Farah, who runs for the United Kingdom, and former Ethiopian Elvan Abelegese, who is competing for Turkey.
Countries from Central, Southern and North Africa seem not to have much to offer, unless a dark horse springs a major surprise.
Zimbabwe’s team-prize win in St Etienne-Galmier in France in 2005 was the highlight of the region’s attempt at these events.
This year’s team of Kudakwashe Shoko, Cuthbert Nyasango, Wirimayi Zhuwawo and Oliver Kandiero is unlikely to make a mark owing to a lack of motivation and funding, and administrative shortcomings — all of which are common to many of the African athletics federations.
This year’s event will not feature the short-course version that has athletes competing over two days.
The IAAF, the world governing body for the sport, has reverted to its 1998 version, in which runners compete over one day in the senior men’s 12km event, senior women’s 8km event, junior men’s 8km and junior women’s 6km event.
Over the years, Kenyan athletes have won the majority of medals awarded. And as hosts, especially, they will be out to prove their mettle. All other nations vying for honours should consider themselves forewarned.