Tiny Tsegaye Kebede Is Big Man In London This Weekend
Defending London Marathon Champ Thinks World Record Ultimately Will Be His, Maybe Even on Sunday in London
by David Monti
April 15, 2011
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved.
LONDON (15-Apr) -- He only stands 158cm (5'-2") tall and weighs just
50kg (110 lbs), but Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede is the Big Man at Sunday's
Virgin London Marathon.
Just 24 years-old, he already has a marathon résumé worthy of a man with
ten years of racing under his belt: world championships and Olympic
bronze medals; a personal best time of 2:05:18; and victories at the
Paris, Fukuoka, and London Marathons.
At yesterday's press conference here, a confident Kebede proclaimed that
he was capable of running at world record pace, if necessary. One
athlete manager said today that Kebede had asked the organizers for a
blistering 62-minute first half (the race hit halfway in 63:06 last
year).
"Yes, it's possible," he said of taking a run at Haile Gebrselassie's
2:03:59 world record. "If the weather is nice you can run 2:04 or
2:03." He then seemed to hedge a bit, adding: "Yeah, I think some day I
will run the world record."
Kebede's rise in marathon running has been astonishing. He won the
little-watched Addis Ababa Marathon at high altitude in 2007 in 2:15:53,
before making his international debut in Amsterdam later that year
where he finished 8th in 2:08:16. He didn't gain wide notice until 2008
when he won Paris in 2:06:40, then backed that up with a bronze medal
at the Beijing Olympics, and a victory at Fukuoka in 2:06:10, then the
fastest time ever run in Japan. His 2009 season was just as good,
taking second at London, the bronze medal at the IAAF World
Championships, and yet another victory at Fukuoka, lowering his Japanese
all-comer record to 2:05:18, which still stands as his personal best.
According to his manager, Valentijn Trouw of Global Sports
Communications, Kebede has no wife or girlfriend, and lives in a house
with his five sisters in Addis Ababa. He has been able to underwrite
the education expenses for all of his sisters with his marathon
winnings, and also supports his parents. His prize money and
publicly-reported time bonuses for 2010 totaled $205,000, a figure which
was surely tripled when appearance fees, private bonuses, and shoe
company bonuses were added on.
"Before, I had nobody, nothing," Kebede said in English shaking his
head. "I changed my parents' lives. I changed my life big, not small."
At Sunday's race, Kebede will face one of the toughest fields of his
career. Although reigning World Marathon Majors and Olympic champion
Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya isn't in the field, it is nonetheless the
Kenyans who are most likely to beat him. His chief rival looks to be
the Track & Field News #1-ranked marathoner of 2010, Patrick Makau,
who has a 2:04:48 personal best and who both the Rotterdam and Berlin
Marathons last year. James Kwambai (2:04:27 PB), Abel Kirui (2:05:04),
Emmanuel Mutai (2:06:15) and three-time London champion Martin Lel
(2:05:15) will also be out for victory.
Kebede didn't seem fazed by such a loaded field. "I am always relaxed," he said.
ENDS
|
|
|
Runner's World &
Running Times
Combined Only $22
a Year
Save $87
Running & Track and Field Posters
Running Shoe Savings: Nike Lunar Glide 20% Off Super popular shoe from Nike featuring Flywire and Lunar Foam