Bekele Wants To Make His A Double
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday August 23, 2008
AS THE world's dominant track distance runner, Kenenisa Bekele has few problems. Just one, really, everywhere he goes, Haile Gebrselassie has been there before him. If he landed on Mars, he would probably find a sign, "Haile was here".
It is an unfair perception, but it persists. It ignores that Bekele has now won as many Olympic gold medals as the great man, is one world championships 10,000metres gold medal away from matching his tally of four and has broken all of Gebrselassie's track world records.It ignores, too, the fact that Bekele has achieved one thing Gebrselassie never did. He has beaten the Kenyans at world cross-country, something that so utterly defeated Gebrselassie that he gave up in frustration. Tonight, in the Bird's Nest stadium, Bekele gets a chance to accomplish another feat Gebrselassie never has - complete an Olympic 5000m and 10,000m double. He already has the "10", now he goes for the shorter event. He will start a slight favourite, reflecting his form and the fact he holds the world record, but twice previously, at the 2003 Paris world championships and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he has attempted this hurdle only to fall at it.Gebrselassie tried the double at his first world championships in Stuttgart in 1993. He won the 10,000 then was beaten in the 5000, won by Ismael Kirui of Kenya. To this day, Chris Wardlaw, an Olympic distance runner himself and head coach of the Sydney 2000 team, reckons "Geb" could have won had he not dutifully stayed with a senior teammate past the point at which Kirui could be caught.And he never doubled again. Ironically, Paul Tergat, the great runner-up to Gebrselassie in two epic Olympic 10,000 finals, probably cost Gebrselassie his chance.Geb pulled up with sore feet after a heat and final of the 10,000 on Atlanta's hard track. His manager then, and still, Jos Hermens told us in the mixed zone one night he would not be doubling. His feet were "too beaten up", he said, and besides, at 23 he would get another chance. He never did.Paradoxically, runners can sprint home faster at the end of a 10,000 than a hard-run 5000. Bekele can reel off a 53-second final lap in the longer race, giving him a decisive edge in speed over the closing stages.Ramp the pace down a couple of seconds a lap for the equivalent 5000, however, and the different energy demands means that the 53 becomes a 55 or 57. And, within that, the subtle second shift of gears becomes important.On the two previous occasions Bekele has attempted the double, he has been passed in the last 50 metres of the race. In Paris, he and Hicham El Guerrouj, another runner with heaps of speed but slightly lesser kick, were grabbed in the last 50m by then 19-year-old Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge.In Athens, Kipchoge rashly threw away this edge by going for it as the field approached the bell. Given more time, El Guerrouj and Bekele reeled him back, but it was El Guerrouj who got the gold, and his own 1500/5000 double, by a stride.Kipchoge is in tonight's race. For once, Kenya has three big kickers, as teammates Edwin Soi and Thomas Longosiwa have finishing speed. So, of course, does Bernard Lagat, and, on the evidence of tipping Craig Mottram out of the final, James Kwalia C'Kurui.Bekele must either have them at full stretch before they can utilise their kicks, or run it out of them by making the first, decisive move. Because that is the way of the Olympics, the race will develop in some way none of us have predicted.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald