Tadesse - Bekele - Hassan: St-Etienne/St-Galmier (© Getty Images)
Olympic 10,000m bronze in Athens and now World Cross Country long race silver in St-Etienne/St-Galmier, 22 year-old Zersenay Tadesse is now an established member of the world distance running elite.
Tadesse has now won more track and field honours than any Eritrean since his country’s hard won independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and comparisons with Kenenisa Bekele are now regularly made at least on a national level.
“It is difficult to be compared with Kenenisa Bekele,” he rightfully shies away the comparison. “He is much greater and has achieved so much.”
Courageous run
In central France, Tadesse bidded his time in a large leading pack early on in the 12km race. Despite coming into these championships as an Olympic medallist, Tadesse was not among the favourites in a race tipped to be a battle among the Ethiopians, Kenyans, and the Qataris, but when he briefly surged forward ahead of Bekele and Kipchoge during the fourth lap, we caught a glimpse of the man who had also surprised many in the Greek capital eight months earlier.
At the bell Bekele powered past Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge but there was an even greater shock in store when not too soon after Tadesse also stole past for second place.
“When I saw Kipchoge slowing down, I felt I had the chance to catch him. It was a mighty run and a mighty achievement. I worked very hard for it.”
Eritrea’s finest
Until the summer of 2004, the world's best known Eritrean distance runner had been America’s Olympic marathon silver medallist Mebrahtom Keflezighi who as a boy with his family had fled the turmoil of his country during the independence struggle, and is now an US citizen. But Tadesse’s silver in the 30+ degree heat of the Athens Olympic stadium gave the small East African nation its first Olympic medal of any kind and a proper place on the international athletics map.
“Many children have started running back home in Asmara inspired by his Olympic bronze,” says a coach with the Eritrean team. “He means so much to Eritrea.”
Hero’s welcome
Tadesse received a grandstand welcome upon his return to the capital Asmara after his Olympic bronze in August. “His welcome back ceremony was one of the largest in the country for many years,” explains Solomon Kahsay, a journalist with Eritrean Television in Asmara.
Tadesse and his Eritrean team-mates stood on top of a fleet of Mercedes limousines (one for each athlete) waving to thousands of people who had crowded the streets of Eritrea’s capital Asmara.
Improved cross country season
However, Tadesse was back in his training base in Madrid two months after his exploits in Athens and entered ten road and cross country races of which he won eight. Of the other two, he was third in Brussels last December and then sixth in Edinburgh in the new year.
Tadesse says that he had come to France hoping for a medal. “I had been training very hard both in Eritrea and in Spain,” he said. “I wanted another medal in France.”
Silver in France is a big individual improvement on his sixth place finish in the long course race in Brussels last year which led home an Eritrean squad to team bronze. there was no team prize this time but his individual improvement was stark and is down simply to continuous training. “I started running only three years ago,” he says. “But in the last two months, I have given it all I have in training.”
World championship medal is the next goal
Now that he is giving himself and Eritrea the first of everything, Tadesse, also the national record holder in the 5000m and 10,000m, is looking forward to this summer’s World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
“I am going to be aiming for another medal,” he said. “But it would require me to train very hard and to run an incredible race.”
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
