Copyright 2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
The Evening Standard (London)
March 16, 2005
LENGTH: 925 words
HEADLINE: GRIEVING CHAMPION HAS HIS TOUGHEST EVER BATTLE
BYLINE: IAN CHADBAND
BODY:
Just weeks after Kenenisa Bekele's fiancee died while they were out on a run, the heartbroken Ethiopian star is back in the spotlight.
When he sits lost in thought for hours on end by his fiancee's headstone, nobody really knows how Kenenisa Bekele feels. A quiet one who always did seem a bit withdrawn at the best of times, he deals with the worst of times by retreating into himself and burying his grief deep.
Even when the most wonderful distance runner the world has seen tried, courageously, to break his public silence at a recent meeting, it was too painful. 'I have my girlfriend in my heart; it is difficult . . . ' Bekele struggled to explain, losing the fight to stop the tears welling.
It is 10 weeks since he and fiancee, Alem Techale, were out for their last training run together on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Here were Ethiopia's golden couple - Olympic 10,000metres champion Bekele and his shy 18-year-old soulmate, the world youth 1500m champion - whose May wedding was going to halt a nation.
'She's not the lucky girl; I'm the lucky man,' Bekele had always beamed. 'I don't want her to be my housewife. I want her to run for her country and make a name for herself.'
Then, suddenly and inexplicably that January morning, this modern African fairytale was shattered. Running in the woods, Techale collapsed and Bekele, unable to bring her round, sprinted off to get to his truck so he could ferry her to hospital. She died before they got there.
Bekele's running has since betrayed just how the tragedy has crushed him. His decline has been shocking. Last year, this 22-year-old phenomenon took our breath away, making new 5,000m and 10,000m world records and his Olympic triumph seem preposterously simple. In his last race in Birmingham three weeks ago, he was two kilos overweight and distracted, a genius reduced to also-ran.
This weekend, Bekele will run the world cross country championships in St Etienne. It's his signature event, the most demanding double header in athletics which he's dominated, winning both the 4km short course and 12km long course races in successive days, three years running.
To gauge the magnitude of this, watch the Kenyans after the first race has been run. Even the best from cross country's greatest nation are utterly spent. Yet Bekele routinely gets out there 24 hours later to destroy the world's best. Again. Annually, it is the greatest feat in athletics.
This time, though, it really would be miraculous. Former Dutch distance star Jos Hermens, Bekele's manager, said: 'Kenenisa made his decision on Monday to run - the Ethiopian Federation want him to and so does his coach, who's also national coach - but I wish he wasn't. I don't think he's in shape either physically or mentally.'
For though he believes Bekele is slowly climbing out of his 'pit' of despair, he sees a man whose mind is far away from athletics as he makes regular treks from the Ethiopian team camp in Addis to spend long silent hours at Techale's tomb, which has been given a place of honour by the door of the church they attended in Bekele's home province of Assela.
'It is a hard journey, 150 miles over difficult roads. Each time, he loses two days training but it's something he has to do,' explained Hermens.
Hermens remembers how Haile Gebrselassie, his most celebrated Ethiopian charge, handled the death of two sisters and a brother. 'He was open and dealt with it in a relaxed way. After a few days, he could even raise a smile,' he said. 'But Kenenisa has taken it much harder. In the days after the burial, he'd sit there for an hour without saying anything. I think it's been harder for him to deal with his grief.'
Especially because that grief came packaged with guilt. 'It's part of the culture in Ethiopia that a 40-day period of mourning has to be observed,' said Hermens. 'There was a kind of conflict; people felt because he wanted to train, he was not mourning. This was very difficult to adjust to so he went to a hotel for a while to isolate himself.
'Still a lot of people found him there. A lot wanted to help but it's a strict, orthodox Christian religion and there were those who wanted to criticise him. Since, it is almost as if he has been asking, 'I've had all these successes but what's it been worth?''
The mystery of Techale's death may have gnawed away too. Buried within 24 hours, an autopsy in an Addis hospital revealed nothing - 'Everything was done in a hurry; it's a country where it is a seen as God's will and that's it,' shrugged Hermens - so even now, no one knows what happened, even though, being Ethiopia, plenty of conspiracy theories have flown about.
'Our sports doctor once mentioned to me that he felt her body wasn't really made for top sport - she had vertebrae in her back which had grown together and was injury-prone,' said Hermens. 'But though physically, she wasn't the strongest, she had considerable spirit. The last thing we questioned was her heart.'
Hermens doesn't question Bekele's heart for the fight now. Gebrselassie, Ethiopia's idol, has made it a personal mission to get his heir back on track. 'Haile's training with Kenenisa in his Gebrselassie's personal gym,' revealed Hermens. 'His message is, 'Look to the future, don't look back and don't feel guilty.'
'Haile knows he'll bounce back but it may take longer than expected. If he does the double this weekend? Then I think Alem's spirit will have driven him and he'll be even greater than we already know he is.'