Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia leads the men's 10,000m final (© Getty Images)
MonteCarloAfter leading Ethiopia to a record seven medals at the World Championships in Paris with his 10,000m gold and 5000m bronze medallist Kenenisa Bekele heads to the IAAF World Athletics Final at the top of the World Rankings in his Event and accompanied by a host of his countrymen, including double Olympic women’s champion Derartu Tulu.
Both Bekele and women’s World 10,000m champion Berhane Adere have chosen to drop down to the 3000m in Monte Carlo, while World 5000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba will stick to the event she triumphed in.
“I haven’t run 3000 this year, so I wanted to run 3000,” said Bekele, who also acknowledged that his big week in Paris, which included an Ethiopian sweep of the 10,000m, and two rounds of 5000m, had contributed to his decision to run a shorter event.
10,000m bronze medallist Sileshi Sihine will run the 5000m along with world cross country bronze medallist Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam and Dejene Berhanu, who ran a world leading 5K on the roads this year.
With Kenya’s World 5000m gold medallist Eliud Kipchoge running his championship winning event in Monaco, a rematch against Bekele will not take place, but the Ethiopian says he is not focusing on any particular opponent anyway.
“A competitor is a competitor, so I aim for a good result without even entertaining thoughts about so-and-so will be there, or so-and-so may run better than me,” he said. “I know I will either beat everyone or be beaten – it will always be one or the other, I just go well-prepared.”
Bekele took time to recuperate after Paris. “I took about four days’ rest, without training,” he said. “Now I’ve moved up to high-level training. But the competition is at hand, so I don’t do everything in training, mostly endurance and some other things.”
He heads into Monaco with the highest ranking of 1441 points in the long distance 5000m-10000m Event category, which also includes 3000m, two miles and cross country. He is also in striking distance of the Overall Rankings top position, currently held by Hicham El Guerrouj, that will decide the Athlete of the Year award recipient.
“There isn’t really much that I knew about this,” said Bekele, who ran a championship record time in the 10,000m and led a ferocious pace that resulted in a championship record finish for Kipchoge in the 5000m. “It means that I just have to try my best to win.”
After their three gold, two silver and two bronze medals put them behind just the United States and Russia in the medals table, Bekele and the rest of the Ethiopian team were greeted by ecstatic countrymen in Paris and Addis Ababa. Bekele and Dibaba subsequently returned the gesture by taking part in
the start of a fund-raising race. “The idea is to help those of our countrymen who have suffered from hunger,” he said.
The 18-year-old Dibaba’s surprise win helped make up for her cousin Tulu, the 2001 10,000m champion, having to drop out of her Paris race with stomach pain that sent her home early.
“She was really, really in shape,” said Tulu’s manager, Mark Wetmore, who added that a recent death in her family had also dealt her a bad blow, but that her form foretold the personal best she subsequently ran in Brussels. “I think she can run a lot faster than 14:44,” he said. “Derartu is definitely here in Monaco to try to run fast.”
Tulu is at the World Athletics Final as a recipient of an IAAF wild card invitation, while the rest of the Ethiopian contingent qualified by being among the top runners in the distance category that will supply 12 runners each in the men’s and women’s 3000m and 5000m races.
Adere, whose double medal bid in Paris yielded only one medal, does however, already have a 3000m World title indoors and is scheduled to contest the event along with Meseret Defar, who sustained a training injury in Paris and did not make the 5000m final but feels she has recovered. World cross country champion Werknesh Kidane, who took 10000m silver in Paris, and Sentayehu Ejigu complete an Ethiopian foursome in the 5000m.
