Abebe Dinkesa set to defend his title at the Obudu International Mountain Race - Athletics news
The Obudu International Mountain Race will take place on November 28, at the Cross River State, in Nigeria. The meet will feature six national teams in the men’s event - Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt - and three in women’s team championship
race - Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Athletes from other African countries will also be a part of the competition.
Current Champion, Abebe Dinkesa from Ethiopia, will be present at the event to defend his title. Ondara MacDonald from Kenya seems to be a tough contender in the race this year, as last year he took the sixth spot in the event. European Champion, Ahmet Arslan
of Turkey will also be competing in the meet, which promises that the battle will be an intense one.
Ondara MacDonald, who holds the outdoor personal best records of 28 minutes and 22 seconds, at the 10 km distance, and a half-marathon personal best of 1 hour, 1 minute and 11 seconds, will surely look make his presence felt at the course.
Ahmed Arslan, with a magnificent five gold medal winning performances to his credit, all consecutively during the period of 2007-2011, looks to be a serious threat for the defending Champion.
The 27-year-old, Dinkesa, a gold winning performer at the 2005 St. Galmier, has a personal best score of 7 minutes, 53.7 seconds, in the 3000 metres category, which was set in 2007. In 2005, the Ethiopian athlete was observing a splendid time-span, as he
embossed personal best scores in 5000 metres, 10,000 metres and half-marathon categories, with 12 minutes and 55.58 seconds, 26 minutes and 30.74 seconds, and 1 hour, 1 minute and 53 seconds, respectively.
Dinkesa, with a magnificent finishing time of 31 minutes and 3 seconds, at the Cross Internacional de Itálica 2006, dominated the field at the 11 km course. The race was tough at the course and the rest of the field had a number of challenging contenders.
Dinkesa carved out his way in brilliant fashion to score victory and prove his unpredictability.
With the induction of African emerging athletes in the competition, with most of the top runners in long distance categories hailing from Africa, race organisers were quite satisfied with the previous responses from African nations.
The Secretary General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Mrs. Maria Worphil was enchanted on the initiative and said, “Athletics Nigeria is delighted with the response shown by African nations for this championship. Last year we had six nations
in the men’s event and five in the women’s including the host nation, Nigeria, and we are already convinced we will have more African nations this time around as we strive to make mountain running a perennial fixture in the calendar of the African Athletics
Confederation.”
The men’s event will surely prove to be an entertaining one as the defending Champion is in good form to defend his title, while many African runners competing in the meet have succeeded at the World Championships.
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