Athletics: 36th IAAF World Cross-country Championships-Gaylord finishes 163rd |02 April 2008

Gaylord, who made his debut for Seychelles at last year’s Seventh Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Madagascar, but did not win any medal, clocked a time of 43 minutes 03 seconds (43:03) in the 12-km race, 8:25 slower than the winning time of Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele (34:38) who won a record sixth title.

Kenyan Leonard Patrick Komon finished second in 34:41, while third place went to Eritrean Tadese Zersenay in 34:43.
A total of 166 male athletes completed the 12-km race and the last one home was Ghanaian Christopher Symonds in 46:56. Ten other athletes failed to complete the distance.

It is to note that the Seychelles Athletics Federation (SAF) chose Gaylord ahead of veteran distance runner and Seychelles record holder Simon Labiche (39:04) to compete in Edinburgh because of the proximity of the race venue and France where he (Gaylord) is staying.

Kenenisa Bekele (men’s senior, 34:38 over 12km), Tirunesh Dibaba (women’s senior, 25:10 over 8km), Ibrahim Jeilan (men’s junior, 22.38 over 8km) and Genzebe Dibaba (women’s junior, 19:59) were the category winners as Ethiopia made a clean sweep of all the titles.

The last time such a feat had been achieved was in 1994 when Kenya’s William Sigei (men’s senior), Hellen Chepngeno (women’s senior), Philip Mosima (men’s junior) and Sally Barsosio (women’s junior) occupied all the top steps of the World Cross-country podium.

G. G.