Tanzanian Marwa promises much for Udine, Mosop back from injury

Kenya`s Moses Mosop is back.

The Kenyan, 2005 World 10,000m bronze medallist and the World XC silver medalist, earlier this year won the 61st edition of the Giro al Sas, 10.5km road race held last weekend in Trento.

This was Mosop`s first race in three months after the Meeting Gaz the France, where he ran the 3000m and injured his left Achilles.

`Now I`m ok,` Mosop said after the race. `I`m coming back to Kenya, my goal is to confirm my medal in the cross country, then I will focus on Beijing.

`On a loop course (9 laps) in the centre of the city - along the typical walk the citizens of Trento call `Giro al Sas` - the outcome of the race was uncertain until the last metres.

From the start Tanzania`s Dickson Marwa ran ahead and did everything to reduce the leading pack in number.

The fastest lap of the race was the 4th (3:10 the split) and in the front just six remained: Mosop and Marwa, plus Uganda`s Wilson Busienei, Kenya`s Ronald Kipchumba (the reigning world road running silver medallist) and John Kiprotich, Tanzania`s Samwel Kwaang Shauri.

Marwa kept pushing and in following lap just Mosop and Busienei were able to hang on with him.

However, the Ugandan seemed very fatigued and lost ground during the 6th lap, while Mosop felt very good and launched his attack with 2 laps to go.

When the bell rang, Mosop had a 6 seconds advantage on Marwa, but the race was not closed. Marwa recovered his strength and increased the pace again with a strong effort and just in the last straight he caught the leader.

Mosop was forced to push hard in order to win the race.

`I`ve never had the fear of being beaten, I was very confident about my final kick,` Mosop revealed. Busienei took the last place on the podium, out-sprinting Kipchumba.

Marwa is in Tanzanian team for next Sunday`s IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Udine, Italy. Also Busienei will run in Udine, after his 4th place finish in last year�s edition in Debrecen.

In the Italian team for Udine there will be Ottavio Andriani and Giovanni Ruggiero, who ran shoulder-to-shoulder for the whole race and closed out respectively in 12th and 13th place.