Splitting the Prize in Amman

Kenyan and Ethiopia split the pot today at the World XC Championships in Amman, Jordan.

Kenya came away with:

Junior Men's Team Title (Wins team title over Ethiopia by 2 points)
Senior Women's Idividual and Team Titles
Senior Men's Team Title (Kenya wins over Ethiopia on a tie-breaker)

Ethiopia took home:

Junior Women's Individual and Team Titles (Ehtiopia wins over Kenya on a tie-breaker)
Junior Men's Individual Title
Senior Men's Individual Title

So, no real clear, dominant team between these two countries (but, they clearly dominate over the rest of the world).

The men's race of the day appeared to be the men's senior race. Kenya wanted desperately to bring the individual title back home (they've had great champions such as John Ngugi and Paul Tergat over the years). With 800 to go there was a pack of 12 to 15 as they approached the uphill finish. And, in the end, Ethiopia kept hold of the individual title as Gebre Gebremariam pulled out a 2 second win over Moses Kipsop of Uganda.

On the US side, the junior men and women both scored 5th place finishes, as did the senior women. The individual performance of the day came from German Fernandez (the super-frosh from Oklahoma State) as he pulled off an 11th place finish, in spite of a stress reaction in his foot.

Full results can be found at http://www.iaaf.org/.

The Muddy Buzzard