Dejen Gebremeskel Wants To Try 10,000/5,000 Double At Moscow World Champs

Ethiopian Also Views Compatriot Hagos Gebrhiwet and Not Mo Farah As His Biggest Threat

by Robert Johnson
April 12, 2013

Copley Square, Boston, MA – Today is the main pre-race media day for the 2013 Boston marathon. This afternoon, the BAA also held a media event for Sunday’s Invitational miles and 5k road-races as well as the BAA’s $100,000 (per gender) Distance Medley Series.

2011 world 5,000 bronze and 2012 Olympic 5,000 silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel was at the second press conference for the 5k and Distance Medley Series (the male and female with the lowest cumulative time at the BAA’s 5k, 10k and 13.1 races wins $100,000) and I caught up with him afterwards.

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I thought the interview was very informative and there were two big takeaways from it.

1) Gebremeskel revealed that he wants to add the 10,000 to his resumé and try to double at the Moscow Worlds in August.

Gebremeskel doesn’t have a 10,000 track time behind him but has run 27:45 on the roads in 2011 (2nd World’s Best 10k). He’ll race the 10,000 at the Prefontaine Classic in  June.

2) When pressed, Gebremeskel said he views his compatriot Hagos Gebrhiwet and not double Olympic champion Mo Farah as his biggest threat for gold in Moscow.

That may come as a shock to many but Gebremeskel once beat Farah at an indoor 3000 here in Boston in 2011 after running virtually the entire 3000 with just one shoe on (Race video of that race here). At the London Olympics, Gebremeskel ran a poor tactical race which seemingly gave him no chance to win. The following photo shows you how far back Gebremeskel found himself on the backstretch of the last lap.

Did poor tactics or Farah doom Gebremeskel in London? Did poor tactics or Farah doom Gebremeskel in London?

Gebremeskel’s last lap was either the same or slightly faster than Farah’s.

Hopefully later tonight, I’ll be able to watch the interview and pull out Gebremeskel’s best quotes to save you time (but if an LRC visitor has time to transcribe it, I’d be very appreciative as we are swamped – please email it to me). In the meantime, you can watch/listen to Gebremeskel below.

More: MB Discussion of this article

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