Tsegaye Kebede finished third after initially falling behind (Photo- London Marathon)

After dominating the big city marathons in 2009 and following some high profile Kenyan withdrawals, Ethiopia's marathon runners were expected to dominate the world championships Marathon in Berlin. National team coach Zelalem Desta even predicted before the race that his athletes could sweep the podium, a feat never achieved before in the history of the championships.

But only Tsegaye Kebede was able to get on the podium, while pre-race favorite and Boston Marathon champion Deriba Merga dropped out of the contest at the 40km mark.

So what happened to the green-vested Ethiopian favorites?

"I do not understand what happened," explained Zelalem after relatively-unknown Abel Kirui and Emmanuel Mutai took the top two places on the podium and dented a severe blow on Ethiopian hopes of ever catching up with their neighbors by sending a B team to Berlin, yet beating them comprehensively. "The race was too fast today. We did not expect this kind of result."

But little did the Ethiopians know that their neighbors had been plotting their downfall for nearly the entire 2009. "We We selected guys who have not run in the last five months," explains Kenyan coach Peter Mathu. "We also trained  our runners to run from the front and it worked well."

The Kenyans often run against their Ethiopians in many major city marathons, which also gave them the chance to evaluate potential rivals. "We knew that [Deriba] Merga will start running from the front very early," said racewinner Abel Kirui. "We talked with Emmanuel [Mutai] and Robert [Cheruiyot] that we must control the race."

True to their prediction, a nervous-looking Deriba did hit the front of the pack as early as the first 5km contrary to the advice of his coaches and fellow athletes. "I do not know how many times I told Deriba not to start quickly," said a disappointed Zelalem. "We had discussed that he should hold the pace, but the Kenyans were too strong," added Tsegaye.

After briefly allowing Deriba to take control, four-time Boston Marathon winner Cheruiyot sacrificed himself for his teammates and curtailed any ambitious attempts by the Ethiopian to open up a gap at the front. "That was the plan," explained Mutai. "We talked among ourselves that we should take turns at putting pressure on him. You cannot run alone against three of us. There was no way today that he would have pushed ahead." 

Cheruiyot was the first to drop behind around the 32km mark, but the Kenyans were not worried. "I knew that I had done my job," said Cheruiyot. "I knew that I was coming back from my injury and was not in shape. I run to support my teammates."

At 35km, Deriba finally cracked. First, he could not respond when the duo injected fresh pace into the contest.A few kilometeres later, he was overtaken by Tsegaye Kebede, who had done well to catch up with a struggling Cheruiyot; and later dropped out of the contest altogether.

At 38km, Kirui made easy work of passing compatriot Mutai and powered home for victory in a new championship record time of 2:06.54, ninety seconds ahead of Tsegaye who finished third.

"I knew that our strength with the Ethiopians was just about the same," said Kirui. "We had to work together and be patient. We wanted the team title."

In winning the team title for the first time, the Kenyans also sent a strong message to their Ethiopian rivals that they remain the number one marathon nation in the world.

"We have to respect that they were really good out there," said Zelalem.

As for racewinning Kenyan Abel Kirui, victory represents a dramatic turnaround in fortunes. In 2005, he came to race in the Great Ethiopian Run as a virtual unknown and finished sixth and also paced Ethiopian marathon great Haile Gebrselassie to the world marathon record in Berlin last year.