Skip to main content

Team Honda's Ibrahim Jeilan Wins World Championships 10000 m (updated with coach's comments)

10000 m world champion Ibrahim Jeilan with Honda teammates. Photo by Takashi Horiguchi - click to enlarge.

In a tense and turbulent World Championships 10000 m full of turnover at the head of the pack, Saitama-based 2006 World Jr. 10000 m and 2008 World Jr. XC champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) pulled off a darkhorse win by running down world leader Mo Farah (Great Britain) in the home stretch to take his first senior world title.  In so doing he achieved the historic feat of becoming the first man to beat world record holder Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) over the 10000 m distance.  Jeilan's coach at Honda, Kiyoshi Akimoto, told JRN shortly after the race, "This result belongs to both Jeilan and the rest of the coaching staff.  He has taken the Japanese lifestyle and training methodology to heart deeply and is truly a superb athlete."

Jeilan also beat Japan-based Kenyans Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), the 2007 World Championships bronze medalist and 10 mile world junior record holder, and Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko), this year's World XC silver medalist.  Both Mathathi and Tanui were among the many who led the race before the final kilometer which Jeilan blazed in under 2:27.  "Japan-based Kenyan" is a common enough phrase, but Jeilan's outstanding victory may well herald the rise of the Japan-based Ethiopians.

Following the lead of the Japanese women in the 10000 m, 27:38 man Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin), the sole Japanese man in the 10000 m, was second-to-last, a limp 15th in 29:04.15.

2011 World Championships Men's 10000 m
Daegu, Korea, 8/28/11
click here for complete results

1. Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) - 27:13.81
2. Mohamed Farah (Great Britain) - 27:14.07
3. Imane Merga (Ethiopia) - 27:19.14
4. Zerseney Tadese (Eritrea) - 27:22.57
5. Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki AC) - 27:23.87
6. Peter Kirui (Kenya) - 27:25.63 - PB
7. Galen Rupp (U.S.A.) - 27:26.84
8. Sileshi Sihine (Ethiopia) - 27:34.11
9. Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 27:54.03
10. Matthew Tegenkamp (U.S.A.) - 28:41.62
-----
15. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 29:04.15
DNF - Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia)

Comments

yuza said…
Great race and a great race!

I was hoping for a bit more from Sato, but not worry.
Anonymous said…
This is turning into a pretty depressing meet for the Japanese distance team :(

Even the usually reliable women's marathon team under-performed.

The success of the Japanese based Africans (1st, 5th and 9th!)make you wonder how much of the blame should be placed on the athletes.
Anonymous said…
Did Jeylan stay in Japan before the start of the champs or did he move back to Addis Ababa to train with the rest of the Ethiopians?

Most-Read This Week

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 9 Nagoya Women's Marathon is the last big elite marathon on Japan's winter schedule, this year with a trio of sub-2:20 runners up front, Sheila Chepkirui , Aga Ruti and Hitomi Niiya . It being a home soil World Championships selection cycle there's decent depth behind them, and 2:21 runner Rika Kaseda looks especially on her game right now with a 1:07:53 PB at the Marugame Half earlier this month. Australian Isobel Batt-Doyle is also trending in the right direction, having run 2:22:59 in her last go in Valencia in December. The debut list is pretty interesting, with women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima , 1:08:03, making her debut, as are 1:09:01 Australian Leanne Pompeani and track runner Yuna Wada . 2018 World Half Marathon silver medalist Pauline Kamulu isn't technically debuting, having run 2:31:04 at last summer's hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon, but with a 1:07:33 in Marugame ahead of Kaseda she has a lot of potential to go 10 minutes ...

3 Top-Tier Japanese Collegiate Runners in United Airlines NYC Half Elite Field

The NYRR have announced the elite fields for the 2025 United Airlines NYC Half , and 3 top-tier runners from Japanese universities feature prominently in the men's field. Having just lost his 59:32 collegiate record to Komazawa University 's Kotaro Shinohara in Marugame earlier this month , collegiate 5000 m and 10000 m record holder Richard Etir of Tokyo Kokusai University heads to New York fresh off a 1:05:31 CR on the 23.1 km Hakone Ekiden Second Stage , equivalent to a 59:50 half marathon on a rolling net uphill course. That should predict success on the tough NYC course. He'll be the main competition for newly crowned American record holder Connor Mantz , 59:17 in Houston at the end of January, with defending champ and sub-59 man Abel Kipchumba  in contention too after a 59:52 win at last year's Great North Run. Sub-27 10000 m men Mohammed Ahmed and Woody Kincaid are also debuting. Komazawa teammates Yudai Kiyama and Hibiki Murakami earned spots in New York ...

Nishimura Breaks Kumanichi 30 km CR, Tsurukawa Over Yonemitsu in Men's Race

  Maybe the next big thing coming down the Tenmaya corporate pipeline, Mizuki Nishimura made good on her pre-race plan for the Kumanichi 30 km to get as close as she could to her Tenmaya teammate Honami Maeda 's 1:38:35 NR. Out solo almost on track to break 1:40 in excellent conditions, Nishimura started to slow in the middle third of the race but had enough time and energy to work with to still take almost 2 minutes off the old pre-super shoe era CR, winning easily in 1:41:42. 2nd and 3rd-placers Mio Kuroda and Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh were together through 20 km before Galbadrakh faded, Kuroda taking 2nd in 1:44:49 and Galbadrakh 3rd in 1:45:44 in a tuneup for next month's Tokyo Marathon. 天満屋の西村美月選手、熊日30キロで1:41:42大会新記録。 Mizuki Nishimura wins Kumanichi 30k in 1:41:42 CR. pic.twitter.com/rAru1WywEm — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) February 16, 2025 The men's race started conservatively, keeping a large group of 11 together until 20 km. sub-61 half marathoner Dai...