Complete disrespect to Kenenisa Bekele

I hope he bounces back after Moscow (Zurich, Bruxelles, Berlin)

and destroys everyone by running 26:50.

agree

I think the athletes disrespected him as well.

Merga could have given up his spot.

I also wonder if they asked Kenenisa if he wanted to do that race in Italy where the others ran fast.

Was Gebremeskel being sneaky by not racing Pre and then showing up at this race?

It's a debacle when you don't have people race each other to get a spot.

the ethiopian federation announced that Pre wouldn't be the trial before the race. KB could have bailed

I do think it's messed up that he got left out, but the rules are that the people with the fastest qualifiers get to go. he didn't have it, and when he tried to time trial a 26:50 he failed with 27:50ish

and nobody would ever give up their spot to KB.

if you're given the opportunity to go to worlds, you take it. you don't give it away to anybody, even if the person is the GOAT of the event.

besides, the 3 guys going all ran 26:50ish. i doubt KB would have done much better in that race

I concur.

haha wrote:

The Ethiopian Federation has shown nothing but disrespect to Kenenisa Bekele. He actually ran and won what labeled as the Ethiopian Trials beating two of the guys on the team. To leave him off the team is horrendous and quite stupid if you ask me.

reed wrote:

the ethiopian federation announced that Pre wouldn't be the trial before the race. KB could have bailed

I do think it's messed up that he got left out, but the rules are that the people with the fastest qualifiers get to go. he didn't have it, and when he tried to time trial a 26:50 he failed with 27:50ish

and nobody would ever give up their spot to KB.

if you're given the opportunity to go to worlds, you take it. you don't give it away to anybody, even if the person is the GOAT of the event.

besides, the 3 guys going all ran 26:50ish. i doubt KB would have done much better in that race

Especially, after London ´12 and Daegu ´11

reed wrote:

the rules are that the people with the fastest qualifiers get to go.

Actually the rules are "the guys the selection committee picks get to go." They just usually lean toward the guys with the fastest times of the year. But make no mistake, it is a selection committee, not a set of rules set in stone.

No disrespect. You pick the team you think will be most successful. Jeilan, Gebremeskel, Merga and Kuma give them the best chances to medal. Bekele is washed up.

Washed up, except the Bekele brothers were their best runners in London, and Kenenisa is running better this year.

J.R. wrote:

Washed up, except the Bekele brothers were their best runners in London, and Kenenisa is running better this year.

No, he is not. Both Bekeles ran better last year. Kenenisa ran 12:55 last year, and Tariku is truly struggling.

* wrote:

I think the athletes disrespected him as well.

Merga could have given up his spot.

I also wonder if they asked Kenenisa if he wanted to do that race in Italy where the others ran fast.

Was Gebremeskel being sneaky by not racing Pre and then showing up at this race?

It's a debacle when you don't have people race each other to get a spot.

Yeah, right. Folks give up their spots on Olympic/WC teams all the time.

Merga is very capable of at least giving Gebremeskel some real assistance. if there was any one athlete who could have given up his spot, that would be Kuma as what has he done of note in the recent years?

The Ethiopians 10000 runners should come to Stanford and put up super fast times early the year then let others chase it.

He knew the rules from the beginning, the fastest 3 go, simple as that!! Probably not the best way to assess who is best, but the rules were there for all to see at the outset.

He disrespected himself by sleeping through the entire winter and spring, not giving himself enough time to reach peak form at the right time. His first race of the year was in April or May in Ireland. NOT GOOD ENOUGH, he's got no one but himself to blame for missing out.

Ethiopians don't do sentiments..

Athlet X wrote:

Ethiopians don't do sentiments..

True. Also they often do run as a team for a #1 at Championchips. This year we don't even know if that's Gebremeskel with the fastest time or Jeilan as reigning champ (or for sure if they'll do it at all this year).

What we do know is that Haile turned down running any more on the track (and supposedly support for Kenenisa) when he was still obviously able to get one of the four slots on the team (as they've had the reigning champ since 2003 they kinda always have four spots).

Kenenisa might have been offered to run support as #3 or 4 but turned that down, we don't know, the Ethiopian selecting process is totaly different from USA's.

My question is - was he invited to run in Italy or was he aware of the attempt there?

At Pre, the pacemakers were behind pace early and by half way he knew it wasn't going to be a fast time.

So he tucked in and won the race, beating two Ethiopians that eventually would be selected for the team.

Then Kuma and Merga went to Italy to run with Gebremeskel and improve their time.

Was this an opportunity for Kenenisa to try and beat them again to maintain his spot?

Did he just sit back and wait for the results of that race?

Should they have a system where they may need to run multiple 10,000m races to ensure a spot?

Bekele could have just taken the race over half way at Pre made it faster.

But their selection system just doesn't work when you have that kind of depth and races are run differently.

You keep refering to Italy, and I think I too remember it was annonced at some time the Ethiopian qualifier should be held in Italy, but the race where Gebremeskel did his 26:51 was another race that took place in Sweden. So the question might as well be, did those three guys now on the team thanks to those times leave out BOTH the Bekele brothers to set up their own time chaser without risking being outkicked by them at the end? ;-)

Ethiopia is not a western democracy, hence their Athletic Federation is subject to changes from above by wim, and doing changes in the rules for the athletes themselves downwards the same way. If an American in the top 3 during trials with an A qualifier time was to be left out of the team, that person could take the American Federation to court for breaking the rules, and almost certainly win.

Not so in Ethiopia, hence even getting on the team has more dimensions to it than just beating your competitors in normal and just qualifying races. Selectors without job security and national political pressure from above are probably somewhat better off with pre-games best times to point at afterwards should gold medals not be the result.