Where Your Dreams Become Reality
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Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
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Shaheen Joins Rome 5000m Field to Race Bekele, Kipchoge, and Limo by Bob Ramsak (c) 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved July 11, 2006 Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the world record holder in the 3000m steeplechase, has been added to the strong 5000m field assembled for the Golden Gala Golden League meeting in Rome on Friday. The 23-year-old Kenyan-born Qatari displayed solid early season form in his outdoor debut in Athens last week where he won the steeplechase in 7:56.32, the sixth fastest performance ever. With a 21-meet win streak in his specialty dating back to August 2002 and back-to-back world titles in 2003 and 2005, Shaheen has admitted to some boredom with the steeplechase, and has indicated that he would contest a wider variety of events in 2006. His personal best of 12:48.81 in the 5000 came in Ostrava's Golden Spike meet in 2003 when he upset Hicham El Guerrouj, a performance which firmly planted Shaheen as the event's sixth fastest ever. At Rome's Stadio Olimpico Shaheen will face world record holder Kenenisa Bekele, the winner over the distance at the Meeting Gaz de France in Paris last Saturday with a world-leading 12:51.32 effort. The solid field also includes Isaac Songok, the 22-year-old Kenyan who upset Bekele in the Golden League series opener in Oslo on June 2, who returns to the longer distance after a 3:31.85 performance in the 1500 in Paris on Saturday. Songok is also the world's fastest this season in the 3000 after his 7:28.98 performance in Doha, Qatar, in mid-May. Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, the 2003 world champion and Olympic bronze medallist, will return to action as well after a month's break. In his last outing, Kipchoge decisively defeated Songok in the 3000 at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Gatehead on June 11. Tariku Bekele, Kenenisa's younger brother, is also in the field on the heels of his 12:55.69 Ethiopian junior record in Paris, where he finished fourth. The preliminary startlist also includes Boniface Kiprop, who set a Ugandan national record of 12:57.60 in Paris on Saturday and Kenyans Benjamin Limo and Martin Mathati, respectively the reigning world champion over the distance and this year's fastest in the 10,000m. American Dathan Ritzenhein, who has run personal bests in both the 5000 and 10,000 this year, is entered as well.
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Cross Country Spikes 10% off Injured?
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