(IAAF) EDINBURGH (29-Mar) — Five-time double IAAF World Cross Country champion Kenenisa Bekele has yet to arrive here, but his presence is already felt. His flight from Addis Ababa arrived late, allowing him only 30 minutes at London’s Heathrow Airport to connect for his flight to Edinburgh this morning. (Anyone who has been to Heathrow knows that even one hour there is barely enough time to change planes).
But no matter, because the mighty Ethiopian can skip the course tour. He’s already won three invitational races on the Holyrood Park circuit, the last coming less than three months ago.
“I have experience of the course here in Edinburgh, and have won the annual race here on three occasions,” Bekele told the IAAF’s Chris Turner via telephone as he waited for his flight. “So, my travel delay does not worry me.”
What may worry the three-time world 10,000m champion is defending champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea who defeated Bekele in the absurd heat and humidity of Mombassa last year. Dizzy and confused from the heat, Bekele was forced to abandon that race, snapping his win streak at five and putting his team out of the medal hunt because they only had five athletes finish the race (six men are needed to score in the senior race).
Tadese, who was on hand for this morning’s press conference, finished just one second behind Bekele at the Event Scotland Great Edinburgh Cross Country last January 12. Speaking carefully in English, Tadese was restrained in his comments, but projected a quiet confidence.
“Actually, I’m ready for this competition,” said Tadese, who is also the reigning IAAF World Road Running champion. He added: “Actually, Kenenisa is a strong athlete. But, I’m ready. I’ll try my best.”
There is little doubt that African men will continue their dominance of this competition which only features 65 nations and an anemic turnout of athletes and teams from Europe. In 1973 85% of the athletes in these championships were from Europe. That share has fallen to 29% this year. Germany hasn’t entered a single athlete, France only one, and Italy only four. None of host country Great Britain’s top distance running stars (Paula Radcliffe, Mara Yamauchi, Mo Farah or Jo Pavey) are entered.
“The issue for me is a coaching issue,” commented two-time Olympic 1500 gold medalist Sebastian Coe, who said that in his day a cross country season was de rigueur for all middle and long distance runners. “Now, coaches don’t see any relevance for performance on the track.”
Scotswoman Liz McColgan, who won silver in these championships in 1987 and bronze in 1991, thinks the Europeans can get back in the medal hunt, but a renewed focus will be required. “I do believe we can beat them,” she said of the Africans who value these championships so highly. “It just goes back to old training patterns and putting in the hard work,” she said.
While certainly not a two-man race, there is little doubt that others hoping to make the medal stand will key off Bekele and Tadese. Of great interest is the very young Kenyan team who hope to defend their team title. When Bekele faltered last year, the Kenyans scored an overwhelming win with a scant 29 points, to second place Morocco’s 152. Bernard Kipyego, the individual bronze medalist from last year, is back on the team, as are Gideon Ngatuny and Hosea Macharinyang, who were fourth and fifth last year. Mubarak Hassan Shami, the former Kenyan Richard Yatich who now runs for Qatar, should also be in the hunt for a medal.
Dibaba Leads Ethiopian Cross Country Machine
Tirunesh Dibaba, who was soundly defeated by Kenyan-born Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat last year, comes to Edinburgh as the women’s favorite. Backed up by teammates Meselech Melkamu and Gelete Burka, third and fourth, respectively, at last year’s championships, the Ethiopians have a good chance of sweeping the podium.
Dibaba has been training at home in Ethiopia where the winter has been unusually cold, which may help her with the chilly conditions here. “I want to win,” she said through a translator. “I want to make them (the Ethiopian fans) proud.” She added: “In Addis it has been cold. Our team will be very strong; we have Burka we have Melkamu. You will see tomorrow.”
The 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championship kicks off tomorrow with the Welcome the World 5 km road race at 11:00 followed by the opening ceremony at 12:15. Racing gets underway with the Junior Women at 13:00 (6 km), the Junior Men at 13:30 (8 km), the Senior Women at 14:05 (8 km) and the Senior Men at 14:45 (12 km).
The all-grass course has one steep hill, rising from 5 to 20 meters in only 100 meters of running. That hill will be done twice in the 6 km and 8 km races, and four times in the 12 km race. The rest of the course is quite flat. Footing was very solid this morning, but heavy rain is expected for later today which could soften the course for tomorrow’s races. The course can be expected to be in the worst shape for the senior men’s race which comes last.
Individual gold medalists in the senior races will receive USD 30,000 ($15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze), and the winning senior teams will be paid $20,000.
USCIS needs to investigate those Woyanne members who are applying for political asylum in the U.S. These are the people who made it impossible for Ethiopians to live and work in their own country freely.
The U.S. immigration service said yesterday that it will temporarily stop denying green cards to refugees and other legal immigrants tied to groups that sought to topple foreign dictatorships, placing their cases on hold while it determines more “logical, common-sense” rules for judging them.
The decision will potentially affect thousands of pending applications for permanent U.S. residence. The cases of hundreds of others who have been denied green cards since December will also be reexamined, said Jonathan “Jock” Scharfen, deputy director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. All the applicants are living in this country under refugee or other visa provisions or political asylum.
Most of the applications involve people linked to groups that U.S. immigration and counterterrorism laws have defined as “undesignated terrorist organizations” because they took armed action against a foreign government. The groups include U.S. allies that fought against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Taliban government in Afghanistan, as well as Burma’s military junta and Sudan’s Islamic leaders.
Scharfen said that USCIS recognized the illogic of admitting immigrants under one provision of the law and then labeling them terrorists for green card purposes, calling it a “very good question.” At the same time, he said, the restrictions are “written so that the definition of a terrorist organization and activity is very, very broad.” Even groups that have been “closely associated with the United States,” such as Montagnard tribesmen who fought with U.S. forces in Vietnam, “fall under the definitions.”
In addition to the Immigration and Nationality Act, restrictions are contained in the 2001 USA Patriot Act and the 2005 Real ID Act. The laws, Scharfen said, “cover groups that are opposed to the government. Any government.”
Although there are waiver provisions, they are cumbersome and rarely used. Denials and delays in processing applications — with determinations made by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department — have been sharply criticized by many in Congress and by nongovernmental immigration groups.
“USCIS is right to review such cases, especially for people in Iraq and Afghanistan who have helped the U.S. and suffered persecution for doing so,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who chairs the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration. “It would be tragic to prevent such people from receiving the full protection of our immigration laws because of a harsh interpretation of laws that should be used to go after true terrorists.”
The catalyst for yesterday’s decision, Scharfen and other officials said, was a Washington Post article last weekend about a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq. Saman Kareem Ahmad, 38, arrived in the United States under a special visa program for those assisting the nation’s war effort, after his life was threatened in Iraq. He had received commendations from the secretary of the Navy and then-Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the top U.S. commander in Iraq, as well as strong support from Marine and Army officers with whom he had worked. Ahmad was later granted political asylum, but his application for permanent residence was denied last month on grounds he had once served with Kurdish military forces that fought against Hussein.
The USCIS letter denying Ahmad’s petition said that the Kurdistan Democratic Party forces fit the definition of terrorist, based on information it had gleaned from public Web sites, because KDP forces “conducted full-scale armed attacks and helped incite rebellions against Hussein’s regime, most notably during the Iran-Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
The KDP, a U.S. ally, is now part of the elected Iraqi government, and Ahmad teaches Arabic language and culture at the Marine Corps base in Quantico and other military facilities, working with Marines who are about to deploy to Iraq. Although the letter said the denial could not be appealed, Scharfen said yesterday that Ahmad’s case is now “under review” and should be resolved “in a matter of days.”
Until recently, waivers were narrowly allowed for those who had involuntarily aided “Tier III,” or “undesignated,” terrorist groups — such as kidnapping victims or those forced under threat to provide assistance. Legislation passed in December broadened the waiver provisions to include people who, under certain circumstances, had received military training or participated in violent actions.
DHS and the State Department, Scharfen said, will now identify groups that may be eligible for exemption. “We’ve recognized there are issues that need to be addressed in a logical, common-sense fashion so that we can apply the exemptions that the law provides.” He said they will “start making a list” of groups from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries.
“There are lots of groups around the world,” Scharfen said, adding that “it could be a cumbersome process.” But “all of us have this as a priority,” he said. “We want to do this in a way that is careful and deliberate, but also with efficiency and dispatch.” He said that USCIS planned to announce the hold placed on pending applications on its Web site and that the agency would notify those whose denials are being reviewed.
A former Utah Valley State College student was sentenced Thursday to serve one more month in jail and three years of probation for felony theft. The 20-year-old will likely be deported to Ethiopia before he finishes that sentence, attorneys said.
Kidus Chane Yohannes was convicted in February of third-degree felony possession of his roommate’s credit card. Two additional felony charges of buying guns with a false identification number were dropped in December.
Judge Gary Stott denied a motion by attorney Richard Gale to reduce the felony charge to a class A misdemeanor.
Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander said reducing the charge might have allowed Yohannes to avoid penalties associated with a felony conviction, like deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on Yohannes, which means federal authorities likely are planning to begin deportation proceedings, Grunander said.
Yohannes is in the United States on political asylum from Ethiopia, which could complicate deportation, Grunander said.
Yohannes is purportedly “consumed with violent depictions of the death of United States military servicemen, as well as human execution by gunfire,” according to 4th District Court documents. He also allegedly made statements about killing a police officer, according to court documents.
Those statements contributed to the Utah County Attorney’s Office’s determination to get a felony conviction, which ensures that Yohannes can never again legally possess a gun in the United States, Grunander said.
Stott sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail, with credit for time served since his June arrest.
(Reuters) – Kenenisa Bekele will be out to erase the one blemish on his extraordinary resume on Sunday by reclaiming the world cross country crown he unexpectedly relinquished last year.
The Ethiopian won both the long and short races at the World cross country Championships every year from 2002 to 2006 and was hot favourite to win again in 2007 when he lined up in Mombasa seeking a 28th off-track victory.
However, the streak came to an end when he dropped out suffering from heat exhaustion and watched Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese take the title.
The 12km battle between the two Africans is the highlight of the competition in Edinburgh – and if their dry-run on the same course in January is anything to go by, it could be a classic encounter.
Last year’s Mombasa victory was Tadese’s only success in 12 races against the master.
But over a shorter 9.3km distance, Bekele could not break clear and crossed the line only a second ahead of his latest rival.
Still only 25, Bekele, three-times world 10,000m champion and 2004 Olympic 10,000m gold medallist on the track, has 11 world cross-country golds and is seeking to become the first man to win the world long course cross country title six times.
Kenyans John Ngugi and Paul Tergat both won five, while the shorter race is no longer held.
Uganda’s 21-year-old Moses Kipsiro, who pipped Tadese in the Cross Internacional de Italica in Seville in January when both men were given the same time, adds some extra spice to the upcoming encounter.
Bekele’s Ethiopian team-mates Sileshi Sihine, twice a world 10,000m silver medallist, Abebe Dinkessa and Gebregziabher Gebremariam should also be in the mix.
Eliud Kipchoge and Joseph Ebuya, who finished third and fourth in Edinburgh in January in the same time as Tadese, will spearhead the Kenyan challenge along with Gideon Ngatuny as their country seeks its first long course men’s title since Tergat won his fifth gold in 1999.
Kenya are seeking a third successive team victory, despite their preparations being disrupted by the recent violence in the country, having got back on track after Ethiopia [2004 and 2005 champions] ended their remarkable run of 18 in a row.
Tergat said earlier this month that retaining the title would help Kenya deal with the aftermath of the post-election violence.
“We can rise from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix and retain the world title,” he said.
Australia’s Craig Mottram is likely to be the only non-African challenging the front runners and, having a Scottish mother, he will be guaranteed good local support.
It was a similar story in the women’s race last year where Kenya-born Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat triumphed to prevent Tirunesh Dibaba making it three in a row.
But the Ethiopian, 10,000 metres champion on the track in Osaka last year, starts as favourite.
Her compatriot Gelete Burka, winner of the last two world short-course races in 2005 and 2006, could push her hard and knows the course, having won there in January.
Reuters
Isn’t this a case of misguided economic policy? Why don’t they grow teff, wheat, corn, and other food crops for the local market to feed the millions of starving people at home first before providing flowers to European markets?
——————————–
By Jason McLure, Bloomberg — Ethiopia may export $186 million in flowers to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East this year, the Ethiopian Producer Exporters Association said.
Exports last year are estimated at $125 million, Kassahun Mammo, executive director of the association, said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa, today.
“This is a sector where we can generate foreign exchange for the country,” he said.
Flower production in Ethiopia, Africa’s second-biggest exporter of the blooms after Kenya, is increasing since the government offered farmers incentives to start flower farms, including waiving duties on imported machinery and grace periods for tax payments.
Ethiopia began exporting flowers in 2001-02, when income totaled $159,000. Exports soared to $2.9 million the following year.
————————-
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at [email protected].
