The newly crowned 10,000m world champion, Kenenisa Bekele who tops the current IAAF World Rankings for the 5000m/10,000m was given the choice either to contest the 3000m or the 5000m here in Monaco. (No 10,000m in the programme).
While the Ethiopian initially decided to line up for the longer event, at which he won bronze in Paris, he eventually contested the shortest race today and dominated it with seemingly very little effort.
Bekele’s winning time of 7:36.98 was more than a second and a half faster than runner up John Kibowen’s 7:38.21. Behind Bekele and Kibowen another five Kenyan runners preceded Australia’s Craig Mottram and Spain’s Jesus Espana, the only two non African representatives in the race.
The early pace was set by Mottram - 2:36.85 for the first kilometre - who led the rest of the field until the Bekele decided to take over with four laps remaining.
Bekele’s move stretched the pack with Leonard Mucheru Maina and James Kwalia remaining on the Ethiopian’s heels. Suddenly Bekele seemed to be tired of making the pace and abruptly reduced his speed resulting in the reunion of pack.
After moments of indecision, Kwalia moved to the front with this time Maina and Bekele right behind him. Bekele followed the rhythm set by the Kenyans for a couple of laps but when he decided it was time to take on the race none of the East African runners had the resources to respond.
With 300 metres to go Bekele dramatically accelerated and was never to be caught. The 21-year-old turned back once to make sure the other runners were far behind and indeed they were.
"At this time of the season, my main aim was to win," said Bekele. "It's hard to run a very fast time. The pace wasn't very fast and I wanted to be sure I was up there in the end to go for a sprint finish if I had to."
Bekele’s winning time will probably not be enough to dethrone Hicham El Guerrouj from the top position in the men’s Overall Rankings but as El Guerrouj himself said during yesterday’s press conference “Bekele is the man of the future.”
IAAF - la
