The Electronic Telegraph Sunday 21 March 2004
Former breakfast television pancake maker Benita Johnson became the first Australian to win a world cross-country medal when she was a shock winner of the women's long race in Brussels yesterday. The 24-year-old finished well clear of Ethiopian duo Ejigayehu Dibaba and last year's champion Werknesh Kidane to become the first non-Ethiopian medallist of the championships. Earlier the Ethiopians had swept the medals in both the junior women's race and the men's short race where Kenenisa Bekele won his third successive crown in the event and set himself up for a double for the third consecutive year when he runs the long race today. Johnson was delighted at breaking the Ethiopian monopoly and finally gaining a medal in an event in which she had previously finished fourth, fifth and sixth. "I wanted the crowd to hear a different anthem to the Ethiopian one as they had heard it enough," she said. "I wanted the organisers to go scrabbling through the tape box to find an Australian one." Johnson, once a top junior hockey player, stuck with the leading group from the start and refused to be shrugged off as Kidane and Dibaba - the elder sister of the world 5000m champion Tirunesh - turned on the pace from the halfway mark. Bekele, meanwhile, stormed home well clear of compatriot Gebre Gebremariam with another Ethiopian Maregu Zewdie filling third in the 4km race. Kenya's dreadful day looked to be set for a boost when Bekele was led at the bell by Eliud Kirui, but that was as good as it got for them. Even worse for Kenya was the sudden emergence from the pack of their former 3000m steeplechaser Stephen Cherono - he now runs for Qatar under the name Saif Saaeed Shaheen - and two of his team-mates including another former Kenyan Abdullah Ahmad Hassan - the former Albert Chepkurui - as the bell sounded. Salt was added to the wound as the Qataris edged Kenya for team silver. Eamonn Condon [EMAIL PROTECTED]
