Kenya fail to reclaim men’s under-20 crown, again

[Leonard Bett]

Kenya’s hope of winning gold medal crash landed yesterday as Milkesa Mengesha led an Ethiopian 1-2 finish in the Under-20 men’s race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Aarhus, Denmark.

Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo won bronze. That was the first time since 1984 that Kenya finished out of medal bracket in the U20 men’s race at the World Cross Country.  

The Kenyan contingent that comprised Samuel Chebole, Emmanuel Kiprotich, Leonard Bett, Edwin Koskei, Charles Karuri, Kibet Kandie seemed to struggle from the outset on the 7.728km course, comprising one lap of 1.972km, two laps of 1.872km and one lap of 2.012km. The temperature was slowly increasing but so too was the strength of the wind, making the climb up the Moesgaard Museum roof even tougher.

Bett, the World under-18 steeplechase champion, was the highest ranked Kenyan in fourth place.

Uganda’s Samuel Kibet, surrounded by Ethiopia’s Mengesha, Tadese Worku, Tsegay Kidanu and Dinkalem Ayele, led through the first lap in 6:06. A large pack of 12 men were still together at the end of the second lap with double European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen sitting at the back of the group.

A couple of minutes later, Worku and Mengesha upped the pace and whittled the group down to eight athletes as three-time European U20 cross-country champion Ingebrigtsen was among the runners to drop behind.

Worku, Mengesha and Kidanu continued to lead throughout the first lap, making easy work – relatively speaking – of the hills. Ugandan U20 cross-country champion Hosea Kiplangat was also in the lead pack alongside compatriot Oscar Chelimo and Kenyan trio Samwel Chebolwi Masai, Leonard Bett and Edwin Kiplangat Bett.

Mengesha had saved an extra gear for the final circuit, though, and soon broke up the lead pack. Worku followed a couple of seconds behind with Chelimo moving into third ahead of the Kenyan contingent.

The 18-year-old had narrowly missed out on medals at the World U18 Championships and 2018 African Cross Country show.