ADDIS ABABA – Dera Dida of Oromia clinched the 36th Janmeda International Cross Country race title that was held on Sunday. The senior women’s race covered 10 kilo meters. Letesenbet Gidey of Trance Ethiopia, Zenebu Fekedu of Oromia Police took the second and third places, in that order. In the 10 km men’s race the winner was Moges Tumay of Mesobo Cement.
The highly regarded Solomon Barega finished second while Andualem Belhu won the third place. In the 10th km senior women’s team event Oromia came out first with a tally of 23 points while Amhara on 59 and Oromia Police on 95 points occupied the second and third places, respectively. Once again Oromia dominated the 10 km men’s team event winning title with a tally of 38 points. South Police took the second place collecting 81 points while Mekelakeya won the third place on 122 points.
The results of the women’s and men’s senior event clearly indicate that the Oromia region has still the full domination in the field of athletics. The Janmeda cross country event was not limited to only senior group. It included events for U-20 women’s and men’s athletes, and for veterans U-50 and above the age of 50.
The veterans took part to encourage the young athletes besides showing the importance of exercise even at that age. In the U-20 women’s 6km race, Girmawit Gebreigziabher of Guna Trading Enterprise, Alemitu Tegenu of Oromia and Tsige Gebreselam of Sur Construction occupied from one up to three places, in the order of that. In this age group Trance Ethiopia won title with a tally of 41 while Oromia took the second place on 42 points.
The third place was won by Hawassa City on 46 points. In the 8 km U-20 men’s event Nibret Melake of Amhara region emerged the winner while Tsgaye Kidane of Mesfin Engineering finished second.
The third place was taken by Milkisa Mekasha of Oromia. Amhara region also came out first in team race in this category on 22 points while Oromia took the second place on 57 points. Electric won the third place on 68 points. The U-20 race both in the women’s and men’s events had shown divers winners. Athletes from Amhara, Oromia and the South had the share of taking the podium. One serious problem in this category has been the violation of the age limit.
In most cases athletes above the age of 20 take part in the race restricted only for athletes U-20. The Ethiopian Athletics Federation, EAF, has tried to resolve this issue time and again but the problem remained unresolved until now. The federation’s Technical director Dube Jilo insisted that everything will be done to keep the age limit in place. In the veterans U-50 men’s event Gezahegn Gebre came out first leaving behind Minale Mekonen and Tolosa Gebre to take the second and third places, in that order. In the above-50 category Ayalew Indale, Yibeltal Biyalfew and Tesfaye Guta occupied from one up to three places, respectively.
The President of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation Derartu Tulu was the guest of honour on Sunday. The race attracted huge crowed at Janmeda. Derartu expressed delight by what she saw at Janmeda. “Extending support and encouragement gives impetus for the athletes. The inspiration one gets when the public stand behind you is enormous. We know it while we were in the making. Now the people of Ethiopia began to watch athletics every time. This has made a big improvement in my life time. When we were young, people of this magnitude didn’t show up to witness athletics event.
In Europe this is common. We are now trying to make it part of our life,” she said. Derartu became the President of the EAF right after the resignation of the Haile Gebreselassie. Haile was the first athlete to lead the federation in the country’s history. By then Derartu was the deputy. Derartu was the first Ethiopian woman athlete to get Olympic gold medal in 10, 000 metres in 1992 in Barcelona. She was also the first African woman to get gold in the world stage. For Ethiopians that was the second historic moment. In 1960 Abebe Bikila was the first Ethiopian and African athlete to take Olympic gold medal in the most gruelling marathon in Rome.
What Derartu did was the repeat of that great feat. Following her victory in Olympics Fatuma Roba, Tirunesh Dibaba, Meseret Defar, Tiki Gelana and Almaz Ayana emerged victorious in Olympics. In fact this day, Ethiopia collects more medals through her female heroines than the male. For all this Deratu takes the credit as a pioneer leading the Ethiopian women in to the flood of victory.
The most surprising coincidence of the Sunday event was the coincidence Derartu’s has with this Janmeda Cross Country Race. A year before the 2000 Sydney Olympics she was sidelined from international big meet for giving her first child. She took part in the February 2000 Janmeda Cross Country race for the first time. The first surprise was she won that race with spectacular performance.
That win helped her to participate in the World Cross Country race in which she emerged victorious. That led her former national team coach the late Woldemeskel Kostre to select her in to the national squad.
She didn’t have the minimum time required for the 10, 000 m race. The other surprise was just a month before the Sydney Olympics Deratu met the minimum Olympic time. Then, the big surprise was she won the Sydney gold medal beating the Olympic record in 10, 000m. In the lapse of 19 years Derartu witnessed the Janmeda Cross Country race as President of the country’s athletics governing body. This shows how history interchangeably
Herald February 12/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
