Gebregziabher Gebremariam wins the 10,000m at the 2005 Ethiopian Championships - Dinkessa is seen to the left of picture (© Nahom Tesfaye)
If Athens 5000m fourth placer Gebregziabher Gebremariam was given the option of erasing a period in his short career, then he would gladly say, 'this year’s World Cross Country Championships in France'.
Gebremariam, who currently stands seventh in the IAAF World Rankings for the 5000m-10,000m and cross country category, came to France having won the World Cross silver medal in both the short and long races at the previous year’s championships in Brussels, Belgium. By comparison his performance this year was a stark disappointment as he finished a disappointing ninth in the short race and failed to even complete the long race.
“I really cannot say what happened,” Gebremariam sadly recalls. “I went to France having qualified in style in Addis Ababa and was training very well for the championships. But I did not run well, I suppose.”
Distance double in Addis Ababa
Gebremariam’s showing might have fallen below par in France, but if there were any doubts as to his ability to perform at the top level, they were put to rest in the recent Ethiopian national track and field championships, where the tall and slender runner made his mark.
Pitted against prominent rivals like Abebe Dinkessa, fourth in the World Cross long race, and Assefa Mezgebu, the former World and Olympic medallist, Gebremariam matched the powerful Dinkessa stride-for-stride in the 10,000m and blasted away from him in the final sprint to take his first senior title at the distance.
Five days later and running against even more difficult opponents in the 5000m like Dejene Berhanu, who was 5th in the Athens Olympics, Markos Geneti, the World Indoor 3000m bronze medallist, and Maeregu Zewde, the 2003 World Cross short race bronze medallist, Gebremariam once again played the game of wait and then pounce. Then exuding confidence and all of his old style, he sprinted comfortably past Berhanu in the final approach to the finish to complete his double.
“I am very satisfied with my performance,” said a delighted Gebremariam. “I am back to my best again and ready to run at the top. It gives me encouragement for the European track season.”
The stadium crowd was in equally buoyant mood matching his various spurts of energy with roars and cheers. But for Gebremariam, it was another recovery in a life filled with constant struggle.
Childhood under fire
Born 20 years ago in the Tigray region, Gebremariam was only five years old when soldiers of the-then Socialist Derge Regime bombed the town of his birth, Hawzen in a bid to break down forces of the Tigrian People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). “It was horrible,” he recalls. “I survived the bombing, but lost two of my brothers in the war.”
Even after the fall of the Derge Regime in 1991, Gebremariam’s life was not all bread and butter. “I used to walk barefoot and help my parents in the farm. The rains came did not come frequently and when they did it was in small amounts, and life was generally difficult.”
However, even in during these hard times, Gebremariam’s parents sent their children to school and that was where he first sowed the seeds for his running career. “I did not think of running as a means of providing for life, but it was my brother Gebrselassie who encouraged me to run.”.
After talking a treble victory - 5000m, 10,000m, and the Half Marathon - in the Tigrian inter-schools competition in 2001, he made his first trip to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa representing the Tigrian region in the Ethiopian championships. There he finished 4th and 7th in the 5000m and 10,000m races respectively.
World Junior golds
Gebremariam progressed at breakneck speed through the ranks in club competition before winning the junior race in the Ethiopian cross country championships in 2002 and taking his impressive form to the World Cross in Dublin where he won the gold for Ethiopia running barefoot.
Four months later, he was again in impressive form winning gold (10,000m) and bronze (5000m) in the 10th IAAF World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, his last two races as a junior before embarking on a senior career.
His first race couldn’t have gone better where he won the 2002 Great Ethiopian Run beating Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine. “I was in the form of my life then,” he recalls. “Kenenisa (Bekele) was well back off the pace, but Sileshi (Sihine) gave me a very difficult race.”
Upstaged by an even greater talent
But having started 2003 as the country’s top contender for gold at World Cross Country Championhips in Lausanne, Switzerland, he finished third in the long race behind Bekele and Kenyan Patrick Ivuti.
He then finished sixth in 5000m at the 2003 World championships in Paris and fourth over the same distance in Athens. Between those two results came his double silver over the short and long race in the 2004 World Cross Country Championships in Brussels, Belgium, although his achievements were largely dwarfed by Kenenisa Bekele’s impressive golden double.
Gebremariam’s achievements over the last three years have been impressive, but compared to that of his compatriots Bekele and Sihine, his triumphs have hardly got a mention. And that, his critics point out, has been the story of his career.
“In running, there is always winning and losing,” points out Gebremariam. “I think my results were not that bad. It is just that others have run better than me. That is what I should do now. I should start beating the best.”
The fight is on for World Championship selection
On evidence of his results in Addis Ababa, Gebremariam seems to have found the panache that matches his powerful sprint finish neede to reach the very top of his sport. “Yes, that is my aim,” confirmed Gebremariam. “But I must train hard and plan my races wisely.”
For the next three months leading up to the World championships in Helsinki, Gebremariam will be looking to better his personal bests of 12:55.59 for the 5000m and 26:53.72 for the 10,000m for Ethiopian team selection. “There will be a lot of competition this year and at the moment, no one is guaranteed a place in the team.”
Marriage to Kidane?
Apart from Athletics, Gebremariam is also planning to marry Werknesh Kidane, the 2003 World 10,000m silver medallist, who has been his fiancée of two years, but is undecided about when the ceremony will be. “I don’t want to plan much ahead,” he said. “My first priority is success in running and then we shall see.”
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
