Week in Review: A runner on the rise
Daniel won pair of cross country races last week after becoming first Eritrean woman to rank among top 10 runners in world
An upward trajectory that began during the 2021-22 international cross country season continued for Rahel Daniel last week when she won two races over a three-day stretch.
The 21-year-old Eritrean won the Campaccio International cross country meet in San Giorgio su Legano, Italy, on Friday before winning the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza in Elgoibar, Spain on Sunday.
Daniel, who recently became the first woman from her country to earn a top 10 world ranking - sixth in the 10,000 meters - from Track & Field News, has progressed so quickly in the last 14 months that it is difficult to find much background information about her online. However, I have an inkling she could do some special things in the years ahead.
Her first victory last week came over a 6-kilometer course in which she ran 19 minutes 10 seconds to defeat runner-up Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi of Kenya by two seconds.
The second win was contested over a 7.6-kilometer layout in which she clocked 25:43 to turn back runner-up and defending champion Edinah Jebitok of Kenya (25:51) and third-place Winfred Yavi of Bahrain (25:58).
“It was fantastic to run the Campaccio and receive the support of the crowd,” she said in a World Athletics post after her victory over Kipkemboi, the 10,000-meter bronze medalist in the World Championships last July. “I competed in San Giorgio su Legano last year and I was prepared for this course. I finished second last year, so I really wanted to win today. I felt in control until the last lap when I launched my final sprint.”
Daniel was eliminated in the heats of the 5,000 in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, but she began to make a name for herself when she was crowned the women’s winner of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour in February of last year based on her performances over a series of races during the 2021-22 season.
She followed those efforts by placing eighth in the 3,000 in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia last March before slashing nearly 19 seconds off her national record in the 5,000 with a 14:36.66 clocking to finish third in the Prefontaine Classic in May. Then came the World outdoor meet in Eugene, Oregon in July in which Daniel cut more than 47 seconds off her national record in the 10,000 when she finished fifth in 30:12.15 in a race won by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia in 30:09.94.
Although she has limited her cross country racing this season, Daniel’s back-to-back victories last week have her feeling confident as she prepares for the World Cross Country Championships in Bathhurst, Australia on Feb. 18.
“It was a muddy and tough race so I prefer to kick off conservatively, especially as I was a bit tired after the race in Italy,” she said of her effort on Sunday. “I’m completely focused on the World Cross Country Championships in Australia and I want to win a medal there.”
A top-three finish in Bathhurst would continue her rise up the world distance running ladder and make her the first Eritrean woman to have finished higher than ninth place in the global title meet.
Close race and runaway victory: Rodrigue Kwizera of Burundi and Selemon Barega of Ethiopia won the respective men ‘s races in the meets in which Daniel posted her consecutive victories.
Kwizera, 23, covered the 10-kilometer course in 28:42 in the Campaccio Internacional, just ahead of Birhanu Balew of Bahrain, who was credited with the same time, and five seconds up on third-place Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy (28:47) and 10 seconds ahead of fourth-place Oscar Chelimo of Uganda (28:52).
Kwizera was part of a nine-runner leader pack that passed through the first three 2-kilometer loops in 5:59, 11:51 (5:52), and 17:42 (5:51).
The lead group was reduced to Kwizera, Balew, Crippa, and World Championship 5,000-meter bronze medalist Chelimo during the fourth loop, but Chelimo had dropped off the pace when Crippa led Kwizera and Balew through the end of the fourth lap in 23:32 (5:50).
Crippa, who placed fourth in the European Cross Country Championships in December, continued to lead until Kwizera and Balew launched their finishing drives with 500 meters left in the race.
Kwizera, who placed 11th in the World Cross Country Championships in 2019, and Balew ran stride for stride until the last few meters of the race when Kwizera edged ahead for the victory.
It was the fourth time this season that Kwizera had won a World Cross gold-level race as he had previously posted victories in the Spanish cities of Amorebieta-Extano on Oct. 23, Alcobendas on Nov. 27, and Venta de Banos on Dec. 18.
“This was my first time competing at Campaccio,” he said. “It was exciting to run here but it was a very hard race. It was very good preparation for the World Cross Country Championships in Australia. I decided to launch my attack on the final lap. It was a very close and exciting sprint.”
Crippa, who plans to make his marathon debut in Milan on April 2, said he decided to push the pace on the fourth lap because no one was taking the initiative.
“I started dreaming about winning the race,” he said, “but Kwizera and Balew were stronger than me.”
Barega, the gold medalist in the 10,000 meters in the Olympics and in the 3,000 in the World Indoor Championships, had a 13-second margin of victory in the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza when he ran 33:14 over the 10.8-kilometer course.
Balew, doubling back from the Campaccio Internacional two days earlier, finished second in 33:27 with Spaniard Adel Mechaal third in 33:39.
Carlos Mayo of Spain, who would finish sixth in 34:01, was the early leader in the men’s race after running the first 2.1-kilometer lap in 6:29. Barega, Balew, and Mohamed Aferdi of Morocco were close behind at that point. But when the pace slowed to 6:46 for the second loop, Mechaal and fellow Spaniard Aaron Las Heras had joined the lead group.
Those six ran together for the next lap and a half before Barega picked up the pace and quickly dropped the three Spaniards.
Continuing to push after that, he had a seven-second lead on Balew with 2,500 meters left in the race. Aferdi and Mechaal were another 16 seconds behind.
While Barega nearly doubled his lead over Balew during the final two kilometers of the race, Mechaal was able to pulled away from Aferdi, who finished fourth in 33:48.
“I’m satisfied with my third [top three] finish here in as many appearances in Elgoibar,” Barega said. “It’s not for sure. But I’ll likely skip the World Cross Country Championships in Bathhurst and do some indoor races instead.”
Another World title?: Letesenbet Gidey is expected to be a title contender in the women’s race when the World Cross Country Championships are held in Bathurst, Australia on Feb. 18.
The 24-year-old Ethiopian saw to that on Jan. 1 when she bolted away from her other competitors in the final kilometer of the Jan Merda Cross Country in Sululta, Ethiopia. The annual meet served as the trials race for the Ethiopian teams that will compete in the World Cross Country Championships.
Gidey, the World 10,000-meter champion and world-record holder in both the 5,000 and 10,000, was content to let countrywoman Tsigie Gebreselama push the pace for the first nine kilometers of the 10-kilometer race before moving into the lead and quickly breaking open the contest.
Her winning time of 35:22 might not sound overly impressive, but it was run on a tough course and at an elevation of nearly 8,500 feet (2,591 meters).
Gete Alemayhu finished second in 35:41, followed by Mekides Abebe, the bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the World Championships, and Gebreselama, who each ran 35:47.
Berihu Aregawi won the men’s race with a time of 30:45 over the 10-kilometer course, followed by Tadese Worku in 30:54, Getaneh Molla in 30:55, and Mogos Tuemay in 31:03. Selemon Barega, the Olympic 10,000-meter champion, placed seventh.
The 21-year-old Aregawi was content to let others push the pace until he took over the lead a little after the 21-minute mark and expanded his advantage over the remainder of the race.
High flying Finn: Wilma Murto of Finland set a national indoor record of 4.75 meters (15 feet 7 inches) in winning the women’s pole vault in a meet in Kuortane, Finland on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Murto cleared the winning height on her first attempt before missing three times at 4.80 (15-9).
The European champion was very pleased with her performance as she was jumping on a set of new poles that were longer than the ones she had used previously.
“The starting point was that I have an open mind to these new poles,” she said on a post on Yleisurheilu.fi. “I thought it was entirely possible that we would return to [the shorter poles], but now it seems there is no need to return the new ones to the factory.”
Murto had cleared 4.60 (15-1) to tie for sixth in the World Championships last July, but she cleared a Finnish record of 4.85 (15-11) in winning the European Championships in Munich a month later.
Other notable performances: Given that the year has just begun, there were a slew of yearly world-leading marks produced in various indoor meets in Europe last week.
While Murto’s vault mark was the most noteworthy, Iryna Geraschenko of Ukraine and Jaime Guerra of Spain also produced solid performances in the women’s high jump and men’s long jump, respectively.
The 27-year-old Geraschenko cleared 1.96 (6-5) in a meet in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv before missing three times at 2.00 (6-6¾).
Guerra spanned 8.02 (26-3¾) to win the long jump in a meet in Sabadell, Spain in Sunday.
Upset victory: He did not run a yearly world-leading time but Philip Sesemann of Great Britain pulled off a surprise of sorts on Sunday when he outkicked countryman and World 1,500-meter champion Jake Wightman to win a 3,000-meter race in Sheffield, England.
Sesemann, who placed 17th in the marathon in the European Championships in August, ran 7:54.34 with Wightman at 7:54.58.
New meet in L.A.: In an effort to re-establish Los Angeles as one of the premier centers of athletics competition in the U.S., it was announced last week that the inaugural Los Angeles Grand Prix meet will be held at UCLA’s Drake Stadium on the last weekend in May.
The meet, which will have a World Continental Tour gold level status, will kick off with the USA Track & Field Distance Classic on the evening of Friday, May 26. According to the meet website, that will be followed by the “Track Meet & Festival” from noon to 4 p.m. the following day, with NBC Sports airing live coverage from 1:30 to 3 p.m.
The USATF Legends Jam, which is being billed “as a night of fine food, outrageous music, countless Olympic medalists and surprises,” will then be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Bobby Kersee, who has coached several American women who have won Olympic and/or World championship gold medals over the past four decades, said the Los Angeles Grand Prix is part of a concerted effort to bring a high-level international-caliber track and field meet back to the Los Angeles area on an annual basis.
“L.A. used to be the pinnacle of the track and field world – and we intend to reignite that passion in one of the largest and most successful running communities in the world,” he said.
Although Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and ’84, and the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut have been a mainstay on the early-season U.S. track and field calendar since its inception in 1959, the area in and around downtown Los Angeles has not staged an annual world-class meet since the Los Angeles Invitational indoor meet – known as the Sunkist Invitational from 1970-95 – ended a 40-plus year run when the meet was cancelled in 2004 due to a lack of sponsorship revenue.
In addition, only one national championship meet – in Carson in 2005 – has been held in the Los Angeles area since 1990 when The Athletics Congress championships were staged at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Before that, Mt. SAC had hosted the TAC meet in 1980 and its predecessor – the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships – in 1979 after UCLA had hosted the AAU championships in 1974 and from 1976-78.
Although it could be a while before any athletes commit publicly to competing in the meet, it would seem likely that Americans Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Athing Mu, Kendra Harrison, and Jenna Prandini could compete in the meet since each of them is coached by Kersee.
High-level meet in The Land Down Under: Oceania Athletics announced on Jan. 4 that the annual Maurie Plant Meet will have World Continental Tour gold level status for the first time this year when it is held in Melbourne on Feb. 23.
The gold level status should help the meet draw more high-level international competitors as it will be able to offer more than $200,000 in prize money to competing athletes, as well as higher ranking points that can aid athletes when it comes to qualifying for the World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games.
Australian athletes have experienced a resurgence of sorts at the global level in the last couple of years as Eleanor Patterson and Kelsey-Lee Barber won the women’s high jump and javelin, respectively, in the World Championships last July, and countrywoman Nina Kennedy won the bronze medal in the women’s pole vault. Australia also received top-five finishes from Jemima Montag in the women’s 20-kilometer walk (fourth), Brooke Buschkuehl in the women’s long jump (fifth), Mckenzie Little in the women’s javelin (fifth), and Nicola Olyslagers in the women’s high jump (tied for fifth).
Those performances came a summer after Australian track and athletes had produced seven top-five finishes in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, topped by a silver medal from Nicola McDermott – now Olyslager – in the women’s high jump, and bronze medals from Ash Moloney in the decathlon and Barber in the women’s javelin.
Peter Bromley, the CEO of Athletics Australia, said “there is no better time than now to bring a gold level meet to Australia with the announcement of the Maurie Plant Meet in conjunction with the Victorian Government.”
He added that the meet “will bring excitement, passion, and pure talent to Melbourne and best of all, we will be able to showcase all that Australia athletics has to offer.”
The meet will take place five days after Australia hosts the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathhurst, New South Wales.
In memory: Don Ruh, the director of the Mt. San Antonio College Relays from 1963-86 and of the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational for more than two decades, passed away on January 6 at his home in Yucaipa, California, after battling congestive heart failure for the previous 18 months. He was 90.
Ruh began his nearly six-decade long relationship with Mt. SAC in 1963 when he was hired as a professor at the college and its second-ever men’s cross country and track and field coach. He was hired by Hilmer Lodge, the school’s first cross country and track and field coach, as well as the founding father of the Mt. SAC Relays in 1959.
Under Ruh’s guidance, the Mt. SAC Relays and Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational grew to be some of the largest events of their kind, and the LA84 Foundation Grant Program also flourished under the watch of him and his wife Sandi.
Although he officially retired from Mt. SAC in 1994, Ruh continued as director of the LA84 Foundation Grant Program, director of the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational elementary and middle school divisions, and director of the Mt. SAC Relays Munchkin Run for many more years.
He and his son Marc also spearheaded the fundraising to build a Mt. SAC athletic heritage hall that overlooks the first turn of the track in Hilmer Lodge Stadium. The project was completed last year and an education center in the building is named the Ruh Family Educational Center.