Geoffrey Kamworor is going to be a name to watch out for in the near future. On Saturday he destroyed a world class field to win the 2015 world cross country championships with a masterful display of astute tactics.
Knowing that Ethiopian men Hagos Gebrhiwet and Muktar Edris are 5000 guys with big kicks so he purposely tried to break them with a relentless attack. In the end Kamworor and his compatriot Bedan Karoki were well ahead of the pack. Then with 200m to go Kamworor surged ahead and Karoki had no answer. Kamworor won the 12K course in 34:52.
Team Competition
It was a close contest between Ethiopia and Kenya. They tied at 20 points apiece with Ethiopia winning on the tiebreaker thanks to a better finish by their fourth man (7th vs. 12th).
Despite losing the team competition, Kenyans will be elated with the 1-2 finish.
The rise of Kamworor
Kamworor’s rise to the top has been steady. He won the world junior cross country championships in 2013. In 2014 he won the world half marathon championships.
At age 18, he ran 13:12 for the 5K and 27:06 for the 10K. He then turned his attention to the roads. His half marathon debut was 59:31, before improving to 59:26 in 2012, and 58:51 in 2013 before winning the World Half Marathon Championship in 2014. During that time, he ran five marathons, but none faster than the 2:06:12 he ran in his debut.
Kamwororo strength is clearly in the 10K to the half marathon. Unfortunately, there are not enough 10K track races nowadays.
Kamwroror now has his eyes set on the world athletics championships 10,000m where he will be the man to challenge Mo Farah’s hegemony.
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