Haile Gebrselassie wins the 10,000m at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart (© Allsport / Getty Images)
Haile Gebrselassie likes to remind people that, when it comes to athletics, Kenya and Ethiopia are in a co-dependent relationship. He sees the historic growth of the distance-running dominance of these two countries as deeply imbricated.
“I needed the Kenyans. They were my headache, and they were my strength,” he says. “But without the Kenyans, I would not have become great.”
In a year that celebrates 40 years of the World Athletics Championships, Gebrselassie reflects on the 1993 edition in Stuttgart, Germany, where this first became clear to him.
By the time the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games came around, Gebrselassie was the clear favorite in the men’s 10,000m, but in 1993 his potential was unknown. He was established for winning at U20 level, but the expectation that he would win every race he entered was not yet the norm.
After finishing second in the 5000m, he faced what many thought would be an even bigger challenge in the 10,000m, where he would need to dethrone the 1991 Kenyan world champion, Moses Tanui.
“Tanui was a very strong athlete, but that day I was more worried about the late Richard Chelimo – he was the strongest one,” Gebrselassie remembers. Chelimo had finished ahead of Tanui in the preliminary round. “It was only as the race progressed and I saw Chelimo get tired that I realised Tanui would be my problem.” Preliminary rounds were held in the 10,000m until 1999.
The field strung out fairly early in the race, with Chelimo being the one to hold on to Tanui and Gebrselassie the longest. The two continuously exchanged glances as Gebrselassie stuck on Tanui’s heels.
The last lap of the race was dramatic. Gebrselassie clipped Tanui; he angrily flailed, kicked his shoe off, and attempted to storm away from Gebrselassie. But over the final 100 meters, Gebrselassie passed him on the inside lane to take the win – his first ever global championship gold at senior level – in a tie of 27:46.02.
Moses Tanui and Haile Gebrselassie in the 10,000m at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart (© Getty Images)
Up until that point, Gebrselassie’s father thought he was wasting his time pursuing a career in the sport. But when he returned home from the World Championships with a new Mercedes – the first car Gebrselassie’s family ever owned – his father changed his mind.
Meanwhile, Tanui and Kenyan fans viewed the win as a theft. Tanui even told a Kenyan paper years later that he was robbed, and that his federation should have filed a protest. While he holds no ill will towards Gebrselassie, the dispute helped charge a healthy rivalry between the two countries that Gebrselassie considers the most fundamental part of his own career.
In 1994 and 1995, Gebrselassie was on a tear, setting world records in both the 5000m and 10,000m. Over the next decade, he and Paul Tergat established an iconic rivalry, with Gebrselassie outkicking the much taller Kenyan by a healthy margin at the 1996 Olympics, and by just a hair in 2000.
But much like Tanui, Gebrselassie credits Tergat for his own greatness. “You know, everyone always talks about how Haile beat Paul Tergat in the Olympics, but no one talks about how Tergat beat Haile in cross country. He did this three times. This helped fuel the fire.”
Now it seems obvious that Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes will vie for medals in the distance events at World Championships and Olympic Games, but this history, and rivalry, had to start somewhere. It predated Gebrselassie’s time, but his longstanding relationships with a few top Kenyans fueled a mutual growth and respect.
“Ethiopians are important for Kenyans, and Ethiopians are important for the Kenyans,” he likes to remind young athletes. “It’s a fight – a peaceful fight.”
Hannah Borenstein for World Athletics
Classic Ethiopia vs Kenya clashes
After being narrowly beaten by Kenya’s Ismael Kirui in the men’s 5000m at the 1993 World Championships, Haile Gebrselassie soon had his revenge as he claimed the first of four successive world 10,000m titles after a controversial victory over Kenya’s defending champion Moses Tanui.
Tanui was tracked closely by Gebrselassie - too closely for his liking - and at the bell the Ethiopian accidentally stepped on the Kenyan’s shoe, causing it to fly off his foot. Angry, Tanui created a 10-metre lead but was narrowly beaten, 27:46.02 to 27:46.74. Actually and metaphorically, Ethiopia had stepped on Kenya’s heels and overtaken them.
Gebrselassie successfully defended his title in 1995 by defeating Morocco’s Khalid Skah and Paul Tergat of Kenya. The latter followed him home in the 1997 and 1999 races.
Six years after Gebrselassie’s world 10,000m breakthrough an Ethiopian woman stood on top of the podium in that event as Gete Wami won the 1999 title in a championship record of 30:24.56, holding off the challenge of Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, second in 30:27.13, and Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe, who took bronze in 30:32.03.
At the 2003 World Championships, the track career of Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge hit a high as he won gold in one of the classiest men’s 5000m races ever witnessed, setting a championship record of 12:52.79 as he finished just 0.04 ahead of Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj with Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who had earlier won the first of what would be four successive world 10,000m titles, having to settle, very unusually, for a bronze.
Tirunesh Dibaba, who had broken through at global level by winning the world 5000m title in 2003, underlined her status by winning the 5000m/10,000m double at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, leading Ethiopian medal sweeps on both occasions.
Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar and Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya duked it out over the course of the 2007 and 2009 World Championships. Defar took 5000m gold in Osaka in 14:57.91, with her Kenyan rival earning silver in 14:58.50.
Two years later in Berlin, however, the positions were reversed as Cheruiyot took the 5000m gold ahead of teammate Sylvia Kibet, with Defar having to be content with bronze. Two years on in Daegu, remarkably, the same three won the same medals, with Cheruiyot leading a Kenyan sweep in the 10,000m.
Defar returned to the top step of the women’s world 5000m podium at the 2013 edition in Moscow, with Kenya’s Mercy Cherono taking silver; the pattern was the same in the women’s 10,000m, where Tirunesh Dibaba earned gold ahead of another Kenyan Cherono - Gladys.
It was advantage Ethiopia in the women’s distance events at last year’s World Championships in Oregon as Gudaf Tsegay beat Beatrice Chebet to the title in the 5000m by 0.46 and Letesenbet Gidey earned gold ahead of Hellen Obiri in the 10,000m by 0.08.
