2011 BUPA Great Edinburgh XC Recap: Kipchoge And Masai Triumph In The Snow Of Scotland

By LetsRun.com
January 8, 2011
*Edinburgh Photos
*2011 BUPA Great Edinburgh "Team" Race Recap: Mo Farah Over Galen Rupp, Europe Over USA

A snow-covered course made for some true cross-country at the 2011 Great Edinburgh XC Race. The chill may have been tough on spectators, but no doubt it made for great visual images on the live national television broadcast on the BBC.

Recaps of the international individual races below. Team race recap (USA vs. GB vs. Europe) here.

Men's 4km: Kipchoge's Experience Shows

The men's 4.248 km race was the first professional race of the day and featured the most credentialed men's runners. All of the African runners (3 runners from Kenya: former world 5k champ Eliud Kipchoge, 2008 Olympic 1,500m champ, Asbel Kiprop, and 2008 Olympic steeplechase champ Brimin Kipruto) were in this race, as the team race had no African teams.

The Kenyan runners were the class of the field on paper and when the real racing got underway, they showed it. Kipchoge, the most experienced on the course (he won here in 2005 and this was his sixth appearance), opened up a gap on the field during the second half of the race as he used the first time up the steep uphill and downhill on the course to pull away from the field. The lanky Kiprop, who was world junior XC champ in 2007, gave chase and was the only one to try and  stay with Kipchoge.

In the end, Kipchoge's win was not in doubt as he handled the second time up the steep uphill and downhill on the course with ease. Kiprop was able to hold off Kipruto for second by 1 second. Britain's Steve Vernon had been 3rd in this race twice before, but that was when the race was UK athletes only. He had a very impressive performance today in 4th, just two seconds back of Kipruto.

The win for Kipchoge was a good start to 2011 who became the father of his second child a month ago. The veteran was world champ back in 2003 at 5,000m, but still had the fastest time in the world in 2010 at 5k (12:51.21). Afterwards, he told the IAAF his attention in 2011 is the track World Champs.

Pos	Name	Club	Team	Time
1	Eliud  Kipchoge		KEN	00:13:12
2	Asbel Kiprop		KEN	00:13:18
3	Brimin Kipruto		KEN	00:13:19
4	Steve Vernon	Stockport Harriers	GBR	00:13:21
5	Tom Lancashire	Bolton United Harriers	GBR	00:13:29
6	Arturo Casado		ESP	00:13:37
7	Ricky Stevenson	New Marske Harriers	GBR	00:13:38
8	Michael Skinner	Blackheath & Bromley	GBR	00:13:39
9	Michael Mulhare		IRE	00:13:42
10	Bruce Raeside	Notts AC	GBR	00:13:43
11	Ross  Millington	Stockport Harriers	GBR	00:13:45
12	Dan Mulhare	Inverclyde	IRE	00:13:52
13	Rui Silva		POR	00:14:03
14	Nick McCormick	Morpeth Harriers	GBR	00:14:04
15	Chris Mackay	Inverclyde	GBR	00:14:04
16	Kristopher Gauson	Edinburgh	GBR	00:14:05
17	Andrew Wiles	New Marske Harriers	GBR	00:14:12
18	Matt Clowes	Liverpool Harriers AC	GBR	00:14:19
19	Doug Selman	Corstorphine	GBR	00:14:35
20	Ndayisenga Jean	Birchfield Harriers	BDI	00:14:38
21	Ben Livesey	Forres AC	GBR	00:14:44
22	Alex Flynn	Aldershot Farnham & District	IRE	00:15:10
23	Dermot Cummins	Corstorphine	GBR	00:15:17

Women's 4k Race: Linet Masai Shows All That's Left For Her Is Winning World XC

The women's 5.775km race featured the reigning 5,000m and 10,000m champions, Vivian Cheruiyot and Linet Masai, and two time world junior champion Genzebe Dibaba (also the sister of world star Tirunesh Dibaba).

While Masai is a better cross-country runner (3rd, 2nd, and 2nd at the last 3 World XC Championships) than Cheruiyot, Cheruiyot has been improving in XC and she definitely had the most experience on the difficult Edinburgh course (this was her fifth time racing in Edinburgh).

Early on however, it was none of the World stars leading. Spanish marathoner Allessandra Aguilar (2:29 PR) was leading the field with Masai, Cheuiyot, Dibaba  and Brit Hattie Dean in tow. Once the real running started, however, this one was never in doubt.

Masai pulled away with ease with Cheuiyot giving chase. Cheruiyot would eventually be overtaken by Dibaba for second, but the winner was never in question. Afterwards, Masai talked to the IAAF and turned her attention to finally coming out in top at Worlds, "It was hard to run on snow, because I am not used to it. Additionally, the opposition was very strong, so I was not that confident before the race. Now I want to finally win the gold medal at the World Cross-Country Championships in March, because in the past two years I ended up with silver."

If Masai does not win World XC this year in Spain, she'll have to wait two years, as World XC is going to a bi-annual schedule after this year.

Pos	Name	Club	Team	Time
1	Linet Masai		KEN	00:20:24
2	Genzebe Dibaba		ETH	00:20:32
3	Vivian Cheruiyot		KEN	00:20:36
4	Charlotte Purdue		GBR	00:20:49
5	Hattie Dean		GBR	00:21:00
6	Alessandra Aguilar		ESP	00:21:13
7	Stephanie Twell		GBR	00:21:24
8	Liz Yelling		GBR	00:21:38
9	Gemma  Steel		GBR	00:21:39
10	Emma Pallant		GBR	00:22:00
11	Stevie Stockton		GBR	00:22:07
12	Emilia Gorecka		GBR	00:22:09
13	Louise Small		GBR	00:22:10
14	Jessica Augusto		POR	00:22:23
15	Beth  Potter	West	GBR	00:22:26
16	Kate  Avery		GBR	00:22:28
17	Hannah Walker		GBR	00:22:40
18	Lauren Deadman		GBR	00:22:49
19	Cristina Jordan		ESP	00:22:55
20	Lauren Howarth		GBR	00:23:01
21	Hester Dix	Scot Univ	GBR	00:23:03
22	Abbey  McGhee	West	GBR	00:23:10
23	Emma Raven	East	GBR	00:23:22
24	Georgie Bruinvels		GBR	00:23:24
25	Melissa Whyte	North	GBR	00:23:25
26	Cristiana Frumuz		ROU	00:23:26
27	Elish McColgan	Scot Univ	GBR	00:23:28
28	Dianne  Lauder	East	GBR	00:23:30
29	Nicola  Hood	West	GBR	00:23:30
30	Josia Zakrzewski	West	GBR	00:23:42
31	Sarah  Inglis	East	GBR	00:23:51
32	Lynsey  Morrison	East	GBR	00:23:55
33	Christina  Rankin	West	GBR	00:23:57
34	Danielle Brown	Scot Univ	GBR	00:24:02
35	Helen  Sharpe	East	GBR	00:24:13
36	Laura Dunn	East	GBR	00:24:17
37	Michelle  Sandison	West	GBR	00:24:33
38	Fiona Thompson	Scot Univ	GBR	00:24:35
39	Catriona  Buchanan	East	GBR	00:24:36
40	Kara  Tait	West	GBR	00:24:42
41	Megan  Crawford	Scot Univ	GBR	00:24:47
42	Cara  Sloss	West	GBR	00:24:48
43	Alison Docherty	East	GBR	00:24:51
44	Hollie Young	West	GBR	00:24:56
45	Rhona Auckland	East	GBR	00:25:01
46	Natilie Sharpe	Scot Univ	GBR	00:25:03
47	Lesley  Chisholm	West	GBR	00:25:03
48	Jennifer  MacLean	East	GBR	00:25:04
49	Moira Davie	North	GBR	00:25:14
50	Ruth Joss	Scot Univ	GBR	00:25:36

*2011 BUPA Great Edinburgh "Team" Race Recap: Mo Farah Over Galen Rupp, Europe Over USA

Disclosure: Nova International, the organizers of the Great Edinburgh race, paid for LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson's travel and accommodations to attend the 2011 Great Edinburgh XC Race from his vacation in Spain.

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