by John Nepolitan

MARCH 29 --Day 1 World XC - Lausanne, Switzerland

The talk of rain for these World Champs never happened, in fact if anything
it was warm. Great to watch a race, but maybe too warm to race XC.

Jr. Womens

Right from the gun it was 4 Kenyans and 4 Ethiopians that had broken away.
After the 1st loop that group had stayed together and as is custom here they
were flying. Of course with XC there are no real splits. The 1st USA
runners were in the top 25 but looked to be struggling. With 1 lap to go it
was down to 2 Kenyans and 3 Ethiopians(4 to count in the team score here).
At the finish Ethiopinas would move to the frnt as the Kenyans began to
struggle. The winner Dibaba looked very fresh at the finish. The Americans
finished 4th with Amy Hastings leading the way.

Sr Men Short

All out all the way is the only way to describe this race. Kenyans went
right to the front with all 4 scorers in the top 10 in a hope to run last
years double gold medal winner Kenenisa Bekele(Eth) into the ground. With
about 1000m to go John Kibowen(Ken) tried to steal the race only to be
caught by Bekele and with 200m to go the Ethiopian unleashed a kick that
could not be answered. Looking totaly fresh and under control as he hit the
finish line it will be interesting to see if Bekele will be effected for the
long course tomorrow. The USA men came home in 10th led by Sandu Rebenciuc.
A rough day for USATF.

Sr Womens Long Course.

The USA would finally get to the award stand. Right from the gun Deena
Drossin went to the front and was joined by Kidane(Eth). As each lap went
by Drossin tried to drop teh Ethiopian but to no avail. With 300m to go
Kidane took off and was clear when she hit the finish line. In the team
results it looked like a dual meet between Kenya and Ethiopia. Ethiopia
with 5 in the top 11 and Kenya with 6 in the top 15. The team from the USA
held onto to claim the bronze like last year.

More Day 1 thoughts

As a member of the press we are provided with
vans to get us around to some extent. On the day we arrived I was told that
if there is room in a team van then I would be able to jump in. Well on
Fridy there were no teams arriving so the vans were empty and I was able to
jump in one right away with the meet director for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix
meet. It seems that everything here is 45 min drive from Lausanne since
that is how long it took us to get from the Geneva airport to the hotel. As
far as getting on the bus, it seems that being from the USA still carries
weight in the world. When they heard I was from the USA they were more than
happy to help me.

One of the fun things about trips like this is finding your way around when
you do not speak the language and getting from point A to point B without a
car. But that is the fun of it, getting by and making things up as you go
along. At least in Europe that is how I like to travel. Having a plan to a
point then filling in the gaps as I go.

The weather at race time was warm - about 10° celsius which we think is
about 66° far. Great to watch a race, not sure how nice it was to race as
one Jr Female from Canada looked very poor towards the finish and even went
down and ended up crawling teh last 10 meters across the line.

In speaking to Kevin Sullivan (he came to talk to my team 2 years back before
the Millrose Games and we have since stayed in touch). The course for the
longer races will be fast even with the ditches and ups and downs, but in
his race (the short course about 2.5 miles) it made running very
difficult. He was not making any excuses, just stating that the race was
difficult. He felt that at the high speed that race goes at, the ditches
were a big disruption to your rythem. If a runner was to get gapped it
would be very difficult to get back.

End of Day 1 of races. After all the gold medals they won today I am sure
people are getting sick of the Ethiopian National Anthem. Coming into the
meet the Kenyans had said that they would dominate these championships, but
so far it has belonged to the Ethiopians. One last note, in coming over
here I was interested to see how the USA team would be received. From what
I have seen there has been no problems and Deena Drossin had many people
cheering for her from many countries.

Why are there sooo many pizza places here in Lausanne? In trying to find a
place to eat last night that is all we came across. Not pizza places like
we know in the USA, but restaurants that have pizza as the main dish to draw
people in. They are everywhere. Oh well I will get by and it is not bad,
yes I had one.

From: "John Nepolitan" <[email protected]>

World Cross Country Championships