News Archive

News Archive

IAAF.org: Ritter and Mohamed dominate from start to finish in Diekirch

<p">In her

eighth participation at the Diekirch Eurocross - IAAF cross country permit -

meeting, Susanne Ritter finally managed to catch an emphatic victory in

Luxemburg. Mustafa Mohamed seemed inspired by the German winner of the women’s

race as he led the field from start to finish in the men’s competition. The

Swede was also delighted to win the Eurocross in which he has participated so

many times before.

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From the very start of the race, it was the favourite who was in command

of operations. Mustafa Mohamed gave the impression of control even though a

leading group of ten athletes was able to follow the pace of the Swede. In the

third of five laps Mohamed attacked from the front and that spread the field

apart. Moroccan Hamid El Mouaziz, who had been very active in the early stages,

faded dramatically from then on. Surprisingly, only the Moroccan Kaddour

Slimani was able to respond although he never really could close the gap with

Mohamed.

On the final lap, Sliman dug deep and produced fine burst of

acceleration, but Mohamed held off that late threat too. The strongest

finishing effort was made by Paulo Guerra. The Portuguese was trailing in 12th

place for most of the race but made a strong move to finally finish in third

place. “It was definitely my best race of the season”, said Guerra. “In the

penultimate lap, I kicked away and overtook a lot of competitors”.