(Reuters) – Ethiopia’s two greatest track runners Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele could meet over 10,000 metres at the Beijing Olympics.
“It’s up to the federation, but they could end up together in the 10km. It’s a big possibility,” their manager Jos Hermens said by phone from Edinburgh shortly after Bekele won his sixth world long-course cross country title on Sunday.
Gebrselassie’s fitness in a 10,000m at Hengelo in Holland on May 24 will be a big factor.
So too will Bekele’s choice of events for Beijing. He has yet to decide whether to defend his Olympic 10,000m title, chase gold in the 5,000m where he was the silver medallist in Athens four years ago or tackle both races.
“I can’t say this far ahead but to do both would not be easy,” Bekele told a news conference in Edinburgh. “The pollution might mean I would have to focus on one.”
Gebrselassie’s plan is much clearer. The world marathon record holder is bypassing the longer race at the Games because he is concerned the pollution could affect his health. The fact that he is asthmatic is a major factor.
The 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000m champion and former world record holder hopes to qualify for Beijing at that distance with a strong Hengelo showing.
He has no road races planned until then. “He has to catch up with some speed work,” Hermens said. “He needs the track training.”
Bekele is likely to run a 5,000m at Hengelo. The current 5,000m and 10,000m world record holder also wants to compete in the African championships from April 30 to May 4 on home soil in Addis Ababa.
“It’s a bit close to this so it won’t be easy but I do believe I have to take part, though I’m not sure what distance I will run,” he said.
Bekele has never run outdoors in the United States but that is likely to change in June.
The Olympic champion is working on plans to compete in the June 8 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, Hermens said. “He knows he needs to be there,” his manager added.
Bekele was scheduled to compete over two miles last year in the meeting which is heavily supported by his sponsor Nike, but withdrew because of lack of fitness.
Kenya has dominated the middle distances in recent Olympic Games, but they might end up with few or none judging by the impressive showing by the Ethiopians in Edinburgh over the weekend.
The heat of Mombassa was a distant memory for runners on Sunday.
In cold, occasionally rainy and blustery conditions in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships it was not just a climatic difference between the previous and current venues of these championships which were noticeable but competitive ones too.
In Kenya last year the women’s senior team title was the only success for the green vested runners from the Ethiopian highlands otherwise they had been routed by their Kenyan hosts, Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese and the Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat.
Had it just been the heat of the Indian Ocean coastal city which had defied Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and their compatriots?
Whatever the reason Ethiopian flags were enthusiastically unfurled over the course in Holyrood Park as a large expat community among an estimated overall crowd of over 20,000 spectators, celebrated their country’s first ever sweep of the four indivdual race titles in the slippery muddy conditions of the heavily rain and wind swept grass circuit.
The last time such a feat had been achieved was 1994 when Kenya did it.
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, Ibrahim Jeilan and Genzebe Dibaba were lauded in Addis Ababa on their return home.
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