Bekele: done?

Wow. Bump.

It sounds like he needs some time away from racing, but not training, and a chance to let his mind and body to gather strength. He's only 25.

probably burned out?!

That's what da juice does.

He has a Brain Cloud.

Sounds like he needs to take some time off and re-evaluate where he is in his life and his running. I bet if he stopped trying so hard for a little while, let himself even back out, and started working from the bottom up, he'd at least start to run better. And with a talent and base as huge as his, I bet he'll be able to regain his old form. Is he going to run a 12:25? Probabyl not. But I think we could see him in the 12:30-40 range again. He just has to take a deep breath, relax a little, and start fresh. Training in a mental state like that is just asking for more trouble, a downward spiral.

agreed, he is probably still grieving over the death of his fiancee.

I forgot all about that. I remember he took the traditional 40 days off, but do you actually recover from a loss like that in 40 days and forget about it? The guy lives a stressful enough life as it is.

He is faking the entire world out. He is probably the fittest he has ever been and is going to race sparingly, but when he does he will set world records and win the double in Osaka.

Some people blank it out, and then it hits them one or two years later.

You think that these guys are so focused and tough, but they arent half as tough as the American runners. They cant phathom anyone beating them or not feeling good. He comes off like a wuss.

he is trying to give mottram more confidence.

jk

5000 Metres wrote:

You think that these guys are so focused and tough, but they arent half as tough as the American runners. They cant phathom anyone beating them or not feeling good. He comes off like a wuss.

American runners typically have far less pressure on their shoulders. American track and field has faaaaaaar less support from their country. Hell, most American citizens couldn't tell you if Alan Webb was a runner or a garbage man. He just runs his races and some people cheer for him -- most people don't care.

I'm not saying that American runners experience no pressure or stress whatsoever, but think about a national treasure like Bekele who's country is on his shoulders. Runners are THE representatives of Ethiopia -- the pride of a nation. And Bekele is their #1 man. Not to mention the family members and friends who he's supporting financially. So when Kenenisa has a bad race that is followed by a lot of poor training, I'm sure it really worries him, which adds to the pressure and stress.

this is an interesting analogy of Bekele's relationship to Ethipoia:

'Ethiopia's "pocket rocket."'

???

Have any of you ever heard the question "is that a rocket in your pocket or ...?"?

wow. why isn't this on the front page?

Now I know what's wrong with me. I have a blown turbo.

This is interesting because the same kenyan report

the same kenyan newspaper wrote an article detailing the ethiopian teams preperation for osaka.. and kenenisa was not mentioned. He still has time to slowly recover for August. I am surprised that he will run in hengelo at a time when he can't lift a table..

All the losers here who were bashing the top Americans for having the good common sense to stay away from Mombasa might want to think about this. And Bekele obviously would have been much better off avoiding the Kenyan XC Club Championships. It would be sad to see someone of Bekele's talent disappear from the scene in this manner.

He probably needs to take some time away from the sport--no racing, no training, no nothing--until the desire to compete comes back. And if it doesn't come back, it doesn't come back.

Interesting, on a Worl X.C. stage with such heat and no lap counters--I wonder if it was done on purpose....You saw the same thing happening in the junior womens race were they thought they were finishing but had another lap to go.

For BK it may be heat exhaustion-and it may take awhile-especially when you may have messed up (hypothalmus) responsible for regulating temperature.