Dibaba, Bekele win in Manchester

On a warm and sometimes blustery morning  recent marathon debutantes Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele showed they haven't lost too much of their formidable speed with contrasting wins over 10km last Sunday at the Bupa Great Manchester Run, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.

Dibaba, who ran the third fastest marathon debut ever of 2:20:35 hours in London last month, was content to run the with the pack in the first half in last year’s race but Dibaba had no such luxury this time, as Kenya’s Poline Wanjiku took it out hard from the gun.

“I didn’t expect it was going to be that fast,” said Dibaba later, referring to Wanjiku who took it out through 1km in 3:04 mins and 2km in 6:10.

There was a sense of inevitability in the men’s race as the slow early pace, including a 3:01 third kilometre, played right into the hands of Kenenisa Bekele. His hallmark sprint finish still seems quite potent, even though he’s upped the mileage this winter in preparation for his marathon debut.

Wilson Kipsang, the London Marathon winner last month, took up the pace in the second half of the race, but while the Kenyan dropped South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka in the eighth kilometre, it didn’t do nearly enough to blunt the awesome speed of Bekele, who nonchalantly looked across at the World marathon record holder with about 550 metres remaining before easing through the gears.

A gap opened up immediately as Kipsang couldn’t find anything to match Bekele, who crossed the line in 28:23 to win by five seconds. —IAAF.org