BIRMINGHAM, England—Sofia Assefa of Ethiopia beat fellow compatriot Almaz Ayana in the Aviva Grand Prix 3,000m steeplechase run here today.
Aviva Grand Prix is a Diamond League Athletics event.
Assefa’s finishing time of 9:25.87, was almost five seconds better than second-placed Ayana. Another Ethiopian athlete Birtukan Adama finished 7th (9:41.95), while Mekdes Bekele failed to finish the race.
Assefa finished second behind arch rival Milcah Chmos of Kenya three times. The latter skipped today’s race as she is preparing for the Kenyan trials next week.
Men’s Category
In the men’s 5,000m race, Imane Merga finished a disappointing 3rh place (13:07.63) finish behind Mohammed Farah of Great Britain (13:06.14) and Galen Rupp of the United States (13:06.86).
Yenew Alamirew of Ethiopia came in 4th ahead of Craig Mottram of Australia and fellow compatriot Abera Kuma.
Results from the Aviva Grand Prix, a Diamond League athletics event at Alexander Stadium:
Women
3,000 m steeplechase:
1. Sofia Assefa, Ethiopia, 9:25.87
2. Almaz Ayana, Ethiopia, 9:30.27
3. Fionnuala Britton, Ireland, 9:37.93
4. Barbara Parker, Britain, 9:37.95
5. Delilah Dicrescenzo, United States
7, Birtukan Adamu, Ethiopia, 9:41.95
10. Mekdes Bekele, Ethiopia, DNF.
Men
5,000m:
1., Mohammed Farah, Britain, 13:06.14
2, Galen Rupp, United States, 13:06.86.
3. Imane Merga, Ethiopia, 13:07.63.
4. Yenew Alamirew, Ethiopia, 13:08.63.
5. Jesus Espana, Spain, 13:10.19.
6. Craig Mottram, Australia, 13:11.51.
7. Abera Kuma, Ethiopia, 13:12.36
The lack of form shown by our male athletes at such a crucial time of the year, leading up to a major tournament is quite alarming. I am hoping that the bigwigs at the federation are taking note, and plan to do something about it, otherwise we could have a more embarrassing tournament than we had at Berlin, where our only gold medals were won by the indispensable Kenenisa. With Kenenisa’s involvement now in the balance, having just returned from a long term injury, I personally can’t see where our gold medals are going to come from.
Merga started the season with a good win at the world cross country championship winning gold and followed that up with a convincing win at the Rome Diamond league win. However, in recent weeks his form seems to have dropped worryingly.
Tariku’s form has been even worse, Alamirew is peerless at the 3K event but doesn’t seem to have the staying power in the 5K, Gebremeskel is steadily improving but you wouldn’t put your mortgage on him definitely winning, Kuma hasn’t developed as well as we had hoped. So, if Ambessa Kenenisa isn’t fit to start then it could be a long and disappointing tournament for us.
In other events such as the steeple chase, we only have 1 athlete of note, Roba Gary. Has the federation done enough to develop athletes in this area? What about the 1500? We only have Mekonnen and Gebremedihin, with Demma Bana on the fringe, is this enough for county like Ethiopia with along tradition of churning our world class athletes at will??
Dube Jillo pull your finger out!!!! Enough with the paper pushing, we want proper, practical leadership, take off your designer suit and put on your track suit like Dr Kostre and Dr Berta, otherwise we will loose more promising young athletes to Bahrain and Qatar.