Geb Facing his Greatest Challenge

When you’ve won as much, and done as much, as Haile Gebrselassie, it must be the most daunting of prospects to know, at 31, that you still have the greatest challenge of your athletics life ahead of you. But that’s what faces the legend from Ethiopia as he prepares to defend his Olympic 10,000m title in Athens in three weeks time.

“There is no question it would be my greatest achievement,” said Gebrselassie, speaking in London as he prepares to race over 5000m at the Norwich Union London Grand Prix on Friday night. “Everyone wants to win an Olympic gold, and for me it would be the third time. If I won again it would be wonderful, something very special. But it’s not easy, there’s a lot of pressure.”

No kidding.

Gebrselassie’s name is already up there alongside that of Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek and Lasse Viren – the only other men who have won two Olympic 10,000m titles – and he knows a third gold would seal his greatness for all time. He knows too, however, that he is no longer the dominant force in distance running he once was and it will take a superhuman effort to repeat his heroics from the last two Olympic Games.

Since his dramatic victory over Paul Tergat on that magic Monday night in Sydney four years ago, Gebrselassie has lost the world title he had held since 1993 and, this year, has seen both his 5000m and 10,000m world records snatched from his grasp by the man predicted to take his Olympic crown.

The Greatest ever

Few would have questioned the man’s character had Gebrselassie eyed the rise of the new generation over the last few years and decided to call time on his track career. After all, with four world titles and 18 world records, not to mention a string of world indoor and road honours at distances ranging from 1500m to the half marathon, he is already regarded by many as the greatest ever. Even he admits to “dreaming of the marathon” and that if wasn’t for the Athens heat that would have been his first choice for 2004.

Ironically, Gebrselassie revealed, it is the emergence of the likes of Kenesia Bekele – his conqueror in Paris last year, and the new world record holder – that has kept his track career going. “They push me to improve my performance,” he says. “If they were not in the sport I might have stopped at some point, maybe two or three years ago after losing in 2001.

“I try to keep going because these guys are coming through. We are good for each other. They started running because of me, and I keep running because of them. It’s thanks to the other Ethiopians that I am still improving.”

Listening to Geb, it’s obvious there’s a huge amount of mutual respect between the master and his followers. To Bekele and Silkeshi Sihine, Gebreselassie is known as “gashe”, an Ethiopian term of respect for older people. The trio have been training hard together in Addis Ababa over the last three months and, despite being nine or ten years older than his teammates, Gebrselassie insists he is learning from them.

“It is because of them that I am doing some very good training,” he says. “Some of it is different to what I did before, especially when it comes to the speed work. They are very aggressive and competitive. I struggle a little bit on the speed programme, of course, compared to them. I am not only struggling against the other athletes but age too.”

Nevertheless, the man once renowned for his finishing kick believes some of his old sharpness has returned – “not like five or six years ago, but better than last year,” he says – and tomorrow night’s outing over 5000m is designed to test exactly how much. His one previous race this year was a 26:41.58 10,000m in Hengelo, finishing second to Sihine, on the same night that Bekele smashed his world 5000m mark.

“That was for qualification,” says Gebrselassie. “This time it is to see how good my speed is and how well my preparations for Athens are going. It will be a good test, to see what shape I’m in after 12 or 13 years of my career.”

Hard track regime

With few of his closest rivals in the line up, Geb will expect nothing less than victory in his last appearance on a British track before he takes to the marathon full time. More important, however, will be how his legs respond when he decides to inject some extra pace over the last two to three laps. According to his manager, Jos Hermans, Gebrselassie will be happy with a time of around 13 minutes – “maybe just over or just less” – and will be testing his tactics as well as his time.

Hermans says that Geb is certainly in better shape now than he was at this point last year when his preparations for Paris were hampered by a cough and a groin strain. “The groin strain is still there a little bit at times,” says Hermans. “But it’s not too bad, so he is able to do the hard speed work.”

Of more concern to Hermans is that the trio often train on a very hard track at Addis Ababa’s main stadium, some of which is concrete. Both Gebrselassie and Bekele suffer occasional soreness in their tendons as a result, he says – indeed, that was why Bekele pulled out of the meeting in Lausanne earlier this season.

What’s more, at 2500m, Addis Ababa’s high altitude means it is often relatively cool and wet at this time of year, and therefore not ideal preparation for the heat and humidity of Athens. To make amends, the team travel 100km out of the capital a couple of times a week, dropping 1000m to a warmer training base where the temperatures reach 35°C.

“It’s like Athens except for the humidity,” says Gebrselassie, who won his third world 10,000m title in the Greek capital back in 1997. This will be the routine until they fly in to Greece just two or three days before the Olympic final on 20 August.

Country first for Ethiopian Team, but all want Gold

As for what will happen when they step onto the track that Friday night Gebrselassie is being typically circumspect. “It will be a very interesting competition,” he says. “Maybe it will be like Paris last year but it is very difficult to predict. This is sport, all I can do is prepare well for the conditions.

“I have been here many times and I will try to do my best. But when it comes to championships we give priority first to our country. As long as Ethiopia gets something, then individuals come after.”

According to Hermans, such fierce national loyalty could be Gebrselassie’s undoing. In Atlanta and Sydney Geb’s tactics were simple – hang on to the Kenyans and then prove he was the stronger man at the finish. It made for two of the best distance races of all time. This year it could be more like Paris where, according to Hermans, “Haile did too much leading”, allowing Bekele to show his devastating speed on the last lap.

“Because he is older Haile probably feels responsible to lead the Ethiopians,” says Hermans. “If the Kenyans are still there at 8k he will have to do something to get the three medals, and then Haile could sacrifice himself.

“Kenenisa is more selfish in that way, and Sihine is an up and coming guy who wants some of the glory. Haile is more social than them.”

For all Gebrselassie’s talk of team tactics, says Hermans, “make no mistake, this is going to be an individual race between the three. They all want the gold.”