Yenew Alamirew Will Outkick You If Your Name Isn’t Mo Farah: Lausanne 2013 5,000m Recap
by: LetsRun.com
July 4, 2013
Lausanne, Switzerland
Yenew Alamirew can kick.
The Ethiopian Alamirew relied on his wheels to get the best of Hagos Gebrhiwet once again, as Alamirew won a three-way Ethiopian sprint over Gebrhiwet and Muktar Edris to win the men’s 5,000 at the 2013 Athletissima Lausanne in 13:06.69.
If it comes down to the final 200m, Alamirew has shown in 2013 he can beat everyone in the world not named Mo Farah.
The Race
2012 Olympic 10,000 bronze medallist Tariku Bekele was the only man who showed any interest in going with the rabbits. However, in the end, while he led for virtually the entire race, he didn’t really commit to going with them and the pace was tactical by top-tier international standards until the final 250 meters.
With 4 laps to go (8:59), the question was, “When would the pace pick up?” It really didn’t get going until the final 200, but boy did it get going then. The 4th-to-last lap was 64.28, 3rd-to-last 63.95 and penultimate lap was 64.39. The final lap? 54.30 leader-to-leader but race winner Yenew Alamirew was faster than that as he was only third or fourth at the bell. Alamirew probably ran about 54-flat, but almost all of that was in the last 200. We had his last 200 in about 24.1 as he went from third to first (MB: Wow: Alamirew 24.1 last 200 to win 2013 Lausanne 5,000!!). Very impressive.
3 Guys Together With 100 To Go
QT #1 Fastest Guys Go 1-2-3:
Despite the somewhat tactical start to this race, when the guys started to really run with a little more than 200 to go, it soon became a battle between the guys with the three best seasonal best times in 2013 and they all went 1-2-3.
QT #2 Alamirew Can Have No Mistakes Versus Farah:
Alamirew’s good kick is likely going to cause him to think he can beat Mo Farah in a race like this even though Farah beat him in Birmingham on Sunday in a similar race. However, as we said before the race, if Alamirew wants to beat Farah, he’s going to have to have perfect tactics. Going wide in lane 2 on the turn probably won’t do it. A better option would be to have the lead and make Farah go wide.
Alamirew Made This Comfortable The Last 100m
QT #3: Diego Estrada Is Only Running 50 Miles A Week
After the race, LRC talked with Diego Estrada, the dual Mexican-American citizen who runs for Mexico internationally. This was Diego’s first Diamond League meet as a pro, now running for Asics. Diego also this year is training under new coach Joe Vigil.
Diego said Vigil began coordinating with Diego’s college coach Eric Heins of NAU this year to make the transition from collegiate running a smooth one. Diego has really scaled back his mileage under Vigil and is running his easy runs with more intensity. Vigil’s plan is for Estrada to keep improving until he’s 30.
QT#4: The Ethiopian Federation Is Screwed up, We Have No Idea If Kenenisa Bekele Will Be Running In Moscow And Neither Does His Brother Tariku
LRC talked to Tariku Bekele after the race. Bekele said he wanted to push the pace hoping to get a fast time but it wasn’t in the cards. Tariku revealed he was sick earlier in the year, but now is healthy and wants to go sub-13:00 next time out.
LRC tried to figure out the Ethiopian selection process for Worlds. Last year, it was solely based on time, which we thought was a mistake. This year it may be the same, although our impression was Tariku Bekele himself was not sure what was going on. He did not know whether his brother, Kenenisa will get to run Worlds (despite winning the Pre 10,000m, Kenenisa only has the 4th-fastest Ethiopian time). If the athletes aren’t sure of the selection process, then it’s not set in stone, so we’ll all have to wait for the Ethiopian federation to decide whatever it does. The time you run is definitely an important factor according to Tariku. That is one take-away we took from this interview:
Bekele Talks About His Race And Selection Process
Speaking of Kenenisa Bekele, it’s worth pointing out that last week in Ostrava, Edris crushed Kenenisa Bekele by 4.19 seconds over the last lap. Here, Edris was beaten by more than 1.5 seconds over the final 200 by Alamirew.
QT#4: Dejen Gebremeskel Did Not Run
Gebremeskel ran a world-leading 10,000m last Thursday. He probably made the smart choice in not trying to run a 5,000m here.
| RANK | ATHLETE | NATION | RESULT | DIAMOND POINTS | DIAMOND RANKING | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
ETH
|
13:06.69
|
11
|
2
|
|||
|
2
|
ETH
|
13:07.11
|
13
|
1
|
 |
||
|
3
|
ETH
|
13:08.23
|
1
|
6
|
|||
|
4
|
UGA
|
13:11.56
|
SB
|
||||
|
5
|
BRN
|
13:12.15
|
|||||
|
6
|
ETH
|
13:13.61
|
|||||
|
7
|
ETH
|
13:14.60
|
PB
|
||||
|
8
|
ETH
|
13:16.84
|
|||||
|
9
|
FRA
|
13:17.42
|
SB
|
||||
|
10
|
MEX
|
13:27.77
|
|||||
|
11
|
ERI
|
13:32.86
|
|||||
|
12
|
ETH
|
13:35.00
|
|||||
|
13
|
MAR
|
13:36.94
|
|||||
|
14
|
ERI
|
13:42.73
|
|||||
|
KEN
|
DNF
|
||||||
|
KEN
|
DNF
|
||||||