Gelete Burka To Attempt XC Three-peat in Edinburgh on January 12 in Preview of World Cross Country By David Monti (c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved December 20, 2007
She's
only 21, but Gelete Burka already has one IAAF World Cross Country
Championships title and two victories at the BUPA Great Edinburgh
International Cross Country to her credit. Now she's hoping that
before she reaches her 22nd birthday next February she'll have yet
another victory in Edinburgh, her third in a row.
"I'm delighted
that Burka is returning," said the elite athlete manager for the meet
in Edinburgh, Andy Caine. "She's an exceptional talent and her manager
insists the attraction of scoring a hatrick will be a motivating
factor."
In last year's race, held over a windy 6.7 kilometers,
Burka prevailed by nine seconds over Kenyan sensation, Vivian
Cheruiyot, who went on to win the silver medal over 5000m at last
August's IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka. Like Burka,
Cheruiyot will also be in Edinburgh again on January 12.
"Cheruiyot
has also announced her intention to return and she is a much more
developed athlete than she was 12 months ago," Caine commented.
The
event is part of a festival of running in Holyrood Park with the BUPA
Great Winter Run, a mass participation 5-K run for runners of all
abilities, the opening the events of the day.
Caine also said
that he's recruited a top-flight group of Britons for the race
including sisters-in-law Hayley and Liz Yelling, 2006 Commonwealth
Games 1500m champion Lisa Dobriskey, rising star Kate Reed, and veteran
Helen Clitheroe.
Last year's men's race was won by Ethiopian
superstar, Kenenisa Bekele, who defeated Eritrean Zersenay Tadese. The
2008 men's field will be announced, shortly.
