Teen phenomenon Tadese Worku won Seville

Ethiopia’s teen phenomenon Tadese Worku captured convincing victories at the Cross Internacional de Itálica in Santiponce, near the Spanish city of Seville, the sixth leg of this season’s World Athletics Cross Country Permit series.
Held on a pleasant and dry afternoon with the temperature about 16C, the men’s 9.9km event didn’t kick off particularly fast as a large pack covered the opening two kilometres in 5:48, led by Tadese, Burundi’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Eritrea’s world half marathon bronze medalist Aron Kifle. Surprisingly neither European cross-country champion Robel Fsiha of Sweden nor European cross-country silver medallist Aras Kaya of Turkey featured in the lead pack.
The following 1.95km circuit took a faster 5:26 with 11 men, including Spain’s Carlos Mayo, still in the heading group. The first serious move came with eight minutes on the clock when USA’s Olympic 5000m silver medalist Chelimo heated up the pace.
After a 5:24 circuit, Tadese and Kifle took turns in the lead and shortly afterwards, with 15 minutes on the clock, Tadese easily broke away from the rest to cover the next loop in 5:20 to build a four-second margin on Kifle.
The 17-year-old leader effectively ended the race during the penultimate loop when he opened a handsome margin on Kifle, Chelimo and Yator.Covering the closing couple of laps in 5:18, Tadese romped home unopposed in 27:31, holding a huge 100-metre margin on his chasers. Chelimo finished second followed by Yator. Tadese, whose athletics idol is Kenenisa Bekele, has big goals for the 2020 track season: “I would like to make the national team for the Tokyo Olympics over 5000m.”