It was appropriate that Paul Tergat chose to run what may be his final cross-country in the Belfast International event at Stormont. The Kenyan won the last of his five consecutive world cross-country titles in the Northern Ireland capital, at Upper Malone in 1999, and was a popular winner again on Saturday.
This was Tergat's last cross-country race of the season because he wants to concentrate on preparing for the London marathon in April. With his future uncertain beyond the Olympics in Athens in the summer, we may never again see arguably history's best ever exponent of cross-country running over the mud.
The 34-year-old Tergat briefly considered chasing a sixth world title in Brussels in March but has now ruled out such an attempt. He has looked supremely fit in all three of his cross-country outings this winter but has at times seemed uncomfortable in the muddy conditions in Brussels and Newcastle.
He appeared more fluent in Belfast and his victory over Tanzania's Fabiano Joseph in the 8km race was more convincing than the 1sec winning margin suggests. The top Briton home was Rob Whalley in sixth with Glynn Tromans seventh.
On the same day in Italy, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, Tergat's successor as the cross-country's most dominant runner, was underlining why he will start as the favourite to add another world title to his collection in Brussels.
He won the 48th Campaccio in San Giorgio su Legnano with a margin of 43sec over Patrik Ivuti of Kenya, the 1999 and 2003 world cross-country silver medallist. The four-time European champion Sergei Lebid, of Ukraine, was a further 5sec back.
Bekele, the world 10,000m champion and winner of four senior world cross-country titles, totally controlled the 12km men's race from the start. "This year's win was much easier than in 2002," said Bekele.
It was not a good weekend for the trio of Kenyan women who are expected to be among Paula Radcliffe's main rivals for the Olympic marathon gold medal.
In Belfast Susan Chepkemei was surprisingly beaten by the Canadian Emilie Mondor. In San Giorgio su Legnano the New York City marathon winner Margaret Okayo was never a contender as she finished fourth in a race won by Hungary's Aniko Kalovic; and Catherine Ndereba, the world marathon champion, pulled a hamstring 500m from the end of a race in Eldoret.
