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December 2009
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European Cross Country Champion will not compete at World Cross |
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25.03.2008 |
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Sergey Lebid will not run in Edinburgh after flu leaves him
to weak to compete.
Photo by Picture Alliance
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Reigning European Cross Country Champion Sergey Lebid will not compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday.
The Ukrainian, who has won the European title a record seven times and was a World Cross silver medallist in 2001, the only European-born runner to reach such a high position on the podium since Britain's Tim Hutchings in 1989, has not fully recovered from a bout of influenza he suffered last month.
"Sergey had the flu' for about two weeks in February. We were hoping that he would have recovered from it in time to run in Edinburgh. He had a comfortable Half Marathon victory a few weeks ago (winning the Stressato Verbania race in Italy in 63:32) He's been in Turkey training for two weeks but Sergey thinks he is still not in the shape he wanted to be in to do himself justice," said his agent Eric Lilot.
"It's a disappointment because Sergey thought the course in Edinburgh would have suited his strengths and that he could have done well," added Lilot.
Unlike his ever-present record over 14 editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Lebid has not competed regularly at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. However, on the three occasions when he has been on the start line he's made his presence felt.
He was the leading European home in 14th place on his last appearance on the World stage in 2005. Before that was his 2001 silver medal in the famously muddy race staged in Belgium's coastal town of Oostende, which will also be the host of the 2008 SPAR European Cross Country Championships later this year.
On his first appearance at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, in 2000, he finished eighth.
"I haven't competed more often at the World Cross for a variety of reasons, sometimes it's been because of injuries or, like last year in Kenya, it's because the course conditions were not going to suit me," said Lebid recently.
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