Masai loses to Chebet, Kibaki hails team

By Feverpitch Team

Former national 10,000m champion Emily Chebet defeated world 10, 000m champion Linet Masai and five times World Cross Country Champion Tirunesh Dibaba to clinch gold at the 38th edition of the World Cross Country Championships.

She beat Masai on the final stretch, clocking 24:19 and immediately dedicated the gold medal to her daughter Sera Cherono.

"I train in Kericho and the course here is very similar to where I have been training. I expected a medal today, but to be honest I didn’t expect to win gold, I feel so happy," Chebet who finished fourth at the Kenya selections in February.

For the second year in a row, Masai was beaten to the gold medal by a teammate. In Amman, she lost to Florence Kiplagat after leading for the better part of the race and a similar scenario was repeated here.

Elsewhere, after winning the 3,000m race at the 2008 World Junior Championships here, the omens seemed to point Mercy Cherono’s way as she repeated the feat, this time with a World Cross Country Championships gold medal in the junior women race.

Cherono got the World Cross Country Championships off to a bright for Kenya by leading a perfect 1-2-3-4 finish.

Meanwhile, President Kibaki congratulated the National Cross Country team following its exemplary performance at the World Cross Country Championships that ended in Poland on Sunday.

Kibaki announced the results to a crowd of ecstatic golf fans who cheered the brave show by the Kenyan team on Sunday.

"Kenya won all the four individual gold medals and what this means is that only Kenyan national anthem was played throughout the event," said Kibaki at Muthaiga Golf Club.

"The results shows that we were the best in the world in this sport in Poland," the President stressed.

Five time World Cross Country Champion Paul Tergat, who called FeverPitch from Cape Town, South Africa was also happy with the team show after 11 years without a senior men title since he won it in Portugal in 1999.

Tergat thanked the team and coaches for the excellent work in Poland.

Also joining Tergat in congratulating the team was marathoner Joshua Chelanga.

Post Master General Hussein Ali also congratulated the team saying that they had done the country proud.