Bekele (left) prepares to make his move, as Sihine (c) and Gebrselassie (r) battle it out at the front of the Hengelo 10,000m (© Soenar Chamid)
The much awaited clash between the Ethiopian distance running masters Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele over 10,000m, drifted quickly away from any hope of a World record setting schedule and into an intriguing three way battle - which encompassed their lesser known compatriot Sileshi Sihine - at this afternoon’s Thales FBK Games - IAAF GP - in the Fanny Blankers-Koen stadium.
The question of whether the four-time World Cross Country champion Kenenisa Bekele could transfer his splendid multi-terrain form to the more regimented structure of a 400m track race, was answered with an unquestionable ‘YES’, as he sprinted home to a 26:53.70 victory this afternoon.
The 20 year-old played the ultimate ‘wait and see’ game, out-sprinting Gebrselassie the World Record holder, with only 110 metres to go of their 10,000 metres duel.
Except for taking to the front for a lap and half just after the midway point had been reached (13:22), Bekele was hardly ever out of third position until the moment of his attack, constantly tracking the back of Gebrselassie’s light blue vest, so closely that it appeared that his eyes had been hypnotised by the presence of the ten year older quadruple World and twice Olympic champion.
But the youngster was obviously never in a trance, in fact he was clearly in charge of all his senses and the tactics he was playing, and Gebrselassie’s occasional nervous looks to either side, must have given Bekele the added confidence that the plan was unsettling his opponent, as it was to prove when he made his one and only move to the front.
Any question of a World record was squashed as early as 2000m, when the pace (5:17) had slipped two seconds behind the planned schedule. By 4000m (10:39) the tempo had slipped eight seconds behind, and by 8000m they were a full half a minute adrift from the plan of a 26:19 finish; the current World record of 26:22.75 having been set by Gebrselassie at this meeting in 1998.
Sileshi Sihine, who had beaten Bekele to the Ethiopian 5000m title at the altitude of Addis Ababa only a few weeks back, was the revelation of the race, mixing it with the two leading players until the final 200m.
In the wake of Bekele’s final dash for home, Gebrselassie never gave up trying and crossed the line for second place in 26:54.58, with Sihine third in a personal best of 26:58.76. NB. Though there seems to be some doubt about Sihine's exact date of birth, he is would seem to be 20 years old, and so his time is not a new World Junior mark.
“I don’t feel bad about beating Haile. I have a lot of respect for him as a competitor and friend but when you are in the field we are competitors, and my aim was of course to win”, said Bekele.
“Of course I'm not happy that I lost,” said Gebrselassie. “I knew Kenenisa was strong and that it was a possibility that I could lose but I never expected that he would actually beat me today."
"Anyway now I know exactly what I need to do for Paris…I have to work on my speed now!”
A stylish men’s 800m took place just over 30 minutes prior to the start of the 10,000m, with American Johnny Gray’s long standing stadium record of 1:43.10 (1988) being broken by this year’s World Indoor championships bronze medallist, Wilfried Bungei of Kenya in a time of 1:43:05.
Bungei was carried through to his record win by compatriot Henry Rotich, the official pacemaker, who took the race over from the gun, passing 400m in 50.6, before stepping aside for Bungei with about 250 metres to go. Bungei who had been close on Rotich’s heels throughout the race in second, then sprinted away for an unchallenged win. In distant second and third places were respectively, the Netherlands’ Bram Som (1:45.11), and South Africa’s Hezekiel Sepeng (1:45.36).
Given the prospect of the men’s 10,000m clash, this meeting was rightly billed as a track spectacular but the women’s High Jump in the infield didn’t disappoint either.
A very confident and clean third time clearance at 2.02m, brought Russia’s European Indoor champion Marina Kuptsova a confidence building win, after the disappointment of missing out on a team spot for the World Indoor championships in March. Croatia’s 19 year-old Blanka Vlasic who had made the trip for her country to those World Indoors - where she finished fourth - was second today in a personal best of 1.98m. Veteran Inga Babakova of Ukraine was third with jump of 1.96m.
At the height of the sunshine and heat of the afternoon (+28c) the women’s 5000m turned into a very straight forward time trial for Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse, who obliterated all opposition by the half way point, and continued her confident surge through to the finish in 15:06.75. Having run 8:42.29 for 3000m already this season (11 May), the 2001 European junior 5000m and cross country champion is running into a fine stretch of form, with the weather conditions the only barrier to a sub-15 minutes time this afternoon.
Australia’s Benita Johnson passed Kenya’s Lornah Kiplagat to take second place as the last lap bell was sounded, and made a strong finish for second place (15:13.67), the Kenyan held on for third in 15:22.97.
Also battling with the heat were the steeplechasers who had the relative comfort of dunking their feet into the water pit each lap, in temperatures which at track level were radiating more in the region of 40c, despite the frequent spraying of cold water on the track surface by tanker trucks.
21 year-old Paul (Kipsiele) Koech was the eventual winner in this boiling cauldron, running a very creditable 8:06.68 (meeting record), well ahead of World and Olympic champion Reuben Kosgei, who was second in 8:09.65, both exceptional times considering the conditions.
The bid by home talent Gert Jan Liefers to break the national Mile record (held by Marko Koers with 3:53.47) ended in success with a second place finish in 3:51.39.
However, it was a record which was overshadowed by the winning 3:50.39 World junior record time of 18 year-old James Kwalia of Kenya, who was the 3000m bronze medallist at the 2001 World Youth Championships. Kwalia's Mile time today nipped inside the old World Junior mark of Noah Ngeny (3:50.41), which the Sydney Olympic champion had run in 1997.
On a domestic note, Liefers also holds the nationals records for 1500, 2000 and 3000m, while the previous holder of the national Mile best, Koers, finished tenth with 3:58.81.
Back in fourth place in a time of 3:53.29 was a very creditable run by 18 year-old Hilary Chenonge of Kenya, the World Junior 5000m champion.
At the sprinting end of the programme there were wins for Nigeria’s World Cup champion Emedolu Uchenna in the men’s dash (10.19 / -2.2m/s), and for Belgium’s European silver medallist Kim Gevaert (11.24 / -1.6m/s) in the women’s sprint.
Of the two sprints the men’s was the tightest, with Uchenna getting the measure of a fast closing Nicholas Macrozonaris of Canada (10.29). Britain’s Olympic 200m silver medallist Darren Campbell was third (10.33).
Czech Vera Pospisilova who was fourth at last summer’s European championships, took a close win in the women’s Discus with a second round 63.61m, which beat the more favoured names of World champion Natalia Sadova of Russia (3rd 62.85m), and 2002 World Cup and Commonwealth champion Beatrice Faumuina of New Zealand (7th 58.46). Belarussian Irina Yatchenko, the Olympic bronze medallist, was second with 63.58m.
The Men’s Pole Vault saw the unexpected departure of World Indoor champion and world outdoor season’s leader Tim Lobinger at 5.70m, with the German ending his day with a best of 5.60m for fourth place. The event was won by France’s Romain Mesnil with 5.75m.
There was better luck for another World Indoor champion, with Manuel Martinez of Spain taking the win in the men’s Shot with a 20.88 put.
The women’s 800m was won by Morocco’s Mina Ait Hammou in 2:00.41 which was a personal best, as was the winning time in the 1500m race which was taken by Margaret Ngotho of Kenya in 4:08.91 (PB).
In the penultimate track event of the day, the men’s 400m, there was a home win with Patrick Van Balkom who came home in 46.88.
Shortly afterwards the stadium, which was filled with about 18,000 spectators, heard the welcome annoucement that as well as jointly financing the renovation of the stadium, the National Sports and Public Health Ministry of the national government had also agreed to subsidised the cost of the meeting over the next three years to a total of 1.5 million euros.
IAAF
