Zambia and Ethiopia teams will face each other at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi today. The winner will move one step closer to the Orange CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup quarterfinals.
Victory for second-placed Chipolopolo over Group A leaders Ethiopia will see Herve Renard’s side through to the quarterfinals to be played on December 7 with a game to spare.
Both Chipolopolo and Ethiopia are level on three points from their opening Group A matches following their 2-0 and 5-0 wins over Kenya and Djibouti on Saturday and Monday respectively.
The meeting will be the two side’s first clash since the 2006 edition of the event when Chipolopolo beat Ethiopia 1-0 in the quarterfinals in Addis Ababa.
Assistant coach George Lwandamina has said his charges are ready but wary of Ethiopia who are aiming to qualify to the last eight this year following their first round elimination in the last edition held in Uganda in January.
“It will not be an easy game but we have to fight and sail to the next round,” Lwandamina said.
Striker James Chamanga who scored a brace against hosts Kenya on Saturday is yet again expected to lead Chipolopolo’s charge for a quarterfinal place.
Another inspiring display from Chamanga will help exorcise Chipolopolo’s dismal show in the 2008 tournament held in Uganda, when like Ethiopia, Zambia too were eliminated in the preliminaries.
However, Renard has decided to take a gamble with preference of defence over offence after leaving Zanaco winger Allan Mukuka at home.
In Mukuka’s place is his Zanaco teammate and former Under-23 defender Eugene Shamakamba.
The unavailability of injured midfielder Stopilla Sunzu will mean Kebby Hachipuka should play a more prominent role in the holding role after being a peripheral figure in the Chipolopolo team over the last year.
Renard meanwhile is set to keep faith in the backline of Thomas Nyirenda, Denis Banda, and Emmanuel Mbola with either Charles Siyingwa or Shamakamba to complete Renard’s defence this afternoon.
Sebastian Mwansa and Henry Banda should again be favourites to start in midfield while Jacob Banda keeps his place in goals. And Chipolopolo will face Djibouti in their final match on Friday at the same venue.
DUBAI — Ethiopia’s superstar athlete Haile Gebrselassie is looking to break the world record on his return to Dubai in January to defend the title he has won for the past two years at the 2010 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon.
The current world record holder, Gebrselassie met with race officials in his home town of Addis Ababa last week to confirm he will return to Dubai for a third crack at breaking one of the most celebrated world records in sport on January 22.
“There are few, if any, greater names in athletics history than Haile Gebrselassie so once again we are proud and delighted that he has chosen to make his next marathon appearance in Dubai in three months time,” said event director Peter Connerton.
Dubai Marathon saw Gebrselassie make his Dubai debut in January 2008 with a winning time that was the second fastest in history.
“I still can’t believe I didn’t break the world record in 2008 — everything was perfect except the pace for the first half of the race, which was too fast — for me, Dubai is a perfect racing venue,” he said.
SPAIN (IAAF) — Ethiopia’s elite runner Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam and Kenya’s Linet Masai confirmed their roles as overwhelming favourites to capture victories in convincing fashion at the 16th ‘Cross Internacional de Soria’ – the second leg of the this season’s IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings series – held on this cold Sunday afternoon (29).
In doing so, the reigning men’s World Cross Country champion and the current women’s World 10,000m gold medallist continued their respective rolls on European soil with a hat trick of wins for Gebremariam in a busy November while Masai succeeded by a huge margin as she did last Sunday in Llodio.
But also the event’s attention rested on the top Europeans’ performances thinking of the continental championships to be staged in Dublin, Ireland, in two week’s time. In that respect, Spain’s Sergio Sánchez and Portugal’s Ines Monteiro catapulted themselves into one of the favourite spots as both performed superbly finishing second in their respective contests.
Gebremariam wins, Sánchez impresses – Men’s race
The men’s 10,000m competition provided a fantastic spectacle with all the necessary ingredients to make the crowd enjoy: a reigning World champion and an array of top Spaniards in form fighting for the podium ahead of a bunch of top Africans.
The early stages witnessed Ethiopia’s Mesfin Hunegnaw (10th at last Worlds in Amman) in charge of the race although it was Eritrea’s Kidane Tadese who made a first selection after increasing the rhythm in the fourth kilometre.
For a while only Gebremariam and Hunegnaw managed to follow in Tadese’s footsteps and this trio opened a short gap on a quintet comprising Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop and Spaniards Sánchez, Ayad Lamdasem, Javier Guerra and Javier López.
But the quintet soon joined the leading triumvirate and then the 27-year-old Sánchez – 4th placed at last European indoor championships in Turin over 3000m – defied the rest of the group by unleashing a powerful attack which was only responded to by Gebremariam. By then the clock was reading 18m and the astonished fans saw how two in-form Africans such as Kidane Tadese and Hunegnaw Mesfin rapidly lost ground.
At the bell (2000m left) Gebremariam and Sánchez took turns at the top while Tadese, Mesfin and Lamdassem travelled 10 seconds behind. Given Gebremariam’s effortless face the only question mark was when he would decide to make his move to win and it finally came 600m before the finish line when the 25-year-old ace changed his gear to romp home unopposed – and greeting the crowd – in 30:21 while the surprise Sánchez hold off the late challenged launched by Lamdassem to take second seven seconds behind the winner but three clear of his fellow Spaniard.
Two local athletes on the podium in the absence of Alemayehu Bezabeh – who is in a two-week high altitude stint in Ethiopia before the Europeans – suggests Spain should kick off as the squad to beat in the countries competition in Dublin.
The victor said: “I arrived in Soria last Monday so I could get accustomed to the cold; my pre-race tactic was to run conservatively in the first half and only test myself over the final two laps. Honestly, I didn’t know Sergio Sánchez and it surprised me he had managed to stay with me for so long. Should he performs like today, Sánchez would have wide options to medal in Dublin.”
Masai a class act – Women’ race
Not even the late addition of Portugal’s European XC bronze medallist Ines Monteiro changed a bit the forecast of the women’s 8000m contest given the presence of Kenya’s World cross country silver medallist Linet Masai.
However, the 29-year-old Portuguese – who notably took second and third spots last weekend in Oeiras (Saturday) and Llodio (Sunday) respectively set a very quick pace and only Spain’s Rosa Morató in second and Masai in third lived with her pace before the 1000m point.
Unlike last Sunday in Llodio, a relaxed Masai preferred to run on her rival’s shoulder for much longer before pulling away from them with ease. With ten minutes on the clock, the gifted Kenyan already ran in second just behind Monteiro leaving Morató in third albeit the Spaniard soon lost touch from the leading pair and had to run in solitude for the race of the rest.
Shortly after halfway (13:50 on the clock) Masai injected a brisker pace to open a 50m margin on Monteiro in a matter of one minute and with one lap remaining the 19-year-old Berlin 10,000m champion had extended her leadership to 15 seconds on Monteiro who was another 100m clear of Morató.
At the finish line no less than 28 seconds separated the first two while Morató finished another 27 seconds in arrears.
“I found it difficult to get into the race; I think it was due to the cold,” Masai said.
“Bit by bit I felt better and better although Monteiro’s early pace surprised me a lot. The last two laps became a fine test for me; I’m very grateful to the crowd for their ovation when I romped home,” added Masai who now returns to Kenya.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
Leading Results:
Men (10km) –
1. Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam, ETH 30:21
2. Sergio Sánchez, ESP 30:28
3. Ayad Lamdassem, ESP 30:31
4. Hunegnaw Mesfin, ETH 30:32
5. Kidane Tadese, ERI 30:54
6. Javier Guerra, ESP 31:02
7. Javier López, ESP 31:10
8. Boniface Kiprop, UGA 31:13
9. Manuel Penas, ESP 31:28
10. Antonio Jiménez, ESP 31:29
Women (8km) –
1. Linet Masai, KEN 27:06
2. Ines Monteiro, POR 27:34
3. Rosa Morató, ESP 28:01
4. Iris Fuentes-Pila, ESP 28:31
5. Ana Días, POR 28:36
6. Alessandra Aguilar, ESP 28:39
7. Bouchra Chaabi, MAR 28:42
8. Sonia Bejarano, ESP 28:49
9. Alba García, ESP 28:55
10. Estela Navascués, ESP 29:13
STILLWATER, MN (Stillwater Gazette) — Tabor Wolde stepped up — the fifth kicker in a shootout for Mahtomedi High School in the Class A Minnesota soccer semi-finals earlier this month — and confidently struck the ball low and fast, past the goalkeeper to give his team a 5-4 shootout victory. His team went on to win the state championship, where he scored another goal.
Seven years ago, he didn’t know the Minnesota High School soccer tournament existed. At just 10 years old, Wolde, his sister Addis, then 12, and their mother fled Ethiopia to the United States.
They escaped in the shadow of the death of their father, Mamo Wolde, an Ethiopian world champion runner and Olympic Gold medalist.
They were able to come to the United States with the help of Joel and Marty Button, of Stillwater. Joel, then the head of a boarding school in eastern Iowa, read about the two in a Runner’s World article about their father, and helped the two children secure visas to come to his school, while their mother came to Minnesota and worked to get political asylum.
Their father, Mamo Wolde [wearing #70 on the photo], won gold at the marathon during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He was a national hero in Ethiopia, and the story of his gold medal became legend there.
But when he returned, the government went through terrible turmoil, during which a new regime took over. Years later, when the government shifted again, Wolde was accused of murder and imprisoned without charge for more than a decade. The case had little ground, so little, in fact, that Amnesty International demanded his release.
His case became a passion of fellow Olympian and sportswriter Kenny Moore, who wrote about the case several times and was able to create political pressure for Ethiopia to free Wolde, which they finally did in 2002. But just months after he was released from prison, he died from a variety of ailments, including bronchitis and liver problems, according to his obituary in the New York Times.
Today, living in Stillwater, Addis and Tabor are flourishing. Tabor has excelled in soccer at Mahtomedi High School. Addis, now a freshman at Bethel College, has decided to study medicine.
Addis’ acclimation to the U.S. has gone well, but her biggest test since moving to the United States wasn’t a cultural but a health issue.
In April 2008, Addis, who ran cross-country in high school, started to feel sluggish and tired after every run.
“Before that, when I ran, I felt so good and refreshed,” she said. “After, when I’d run, I’d be exhausted and then sleep.”
She went to the doctor, who told Addis, then a junior, that she was pregnant. But more tests found a mass, a malignant tumor. It was ovarian cancer. The next day, she was in surgery, and for the next three months, she underwent chemotherapy.
“She was the star of Children’s Hospital,” said Marty Button. “The politest, and she looked the best in a gown.”
Addis says the experience helped her grow.
“I learned a lot from it,” she said. “I think it happened for a reason. It made me stronger.”
While it gave perspective to a then 17-year-old who had already been through a great deal, it gave her an interest in medicine.
“When I was sick, the nurses and the doctors were wonderful,” she said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I want to be a nurse and make people who are sick feel better and feel happier.'”
Tabor, 17, is much more focused on soccer, something he’s done all his life.
“I’ve played since I could walk, I just kicked around outside in street soccer,” he said. Outside of high school he plays with the St. Croix Celtics club, and he hopes to play in college or on an academy soccer team.
The two say they are used to life in the U.S. now, they’ve been trick-or-treating on Halloween, they’ve gotten used to ice cold winters, and even taken on snow blowing chores.
But there were definitely adjustments.
“Back home we are very close. If you are friends there, you walk with each other holding hands, even guys do it,” Addis said. “Here its a different story. It’s like ‘Whoa, you’ve got your space and I’ve got my space.’ It was very different.”
While they’ve embraced life here, there are still a longing to return to Ethiopia, at least for a visit.
“I miss it – definitely,” she said. “The people, I still have my whole family back there, my cousins, my aunts, my older brother.”
They are in touch by phone, but they’ve not gotten to see that part of their family since coming to the U.S.
The two would like to return to Ethiopia, but they are still a few years off from becoming U.S. Citizens.
“We don’t know what would happen,” said Joel Button. “Because they are here because they are here via political asylum, if they go back (to Ethiopia), their country won’t look too favorably on them. So, they aren’t going to go over until they get citizenship.”
While its hard, the siblings say that’s for the best.
“It’s tough, but its OK,” Addis said. “When holidays come, like for Christmas or new years we used to do a lot of stuff there and the whole family would gather.”
SPAIN (IAAF) — Ethiopia’s elite runner Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam and Kenya’s Linet Masai confirmed their roles as overwhelming favourites to capture victories in convincing fashion at the 16th ‘Cross Internacional de Soria’ – the second leg of the this season’s IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings series – held on this cold Sunday afternoon (29).
They escaped in the shadow of the death of their father, Mamo Wolde, an Ethiopian world champion runner and Olympic Gold medalist.