Kenenisa Bekele Returns To Action This Weekend in Ireland
Three-Time Olympic Champ Will Run Run Just Third Road 10k of His Life
By David Monti.
(c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
(10-Apr) -- On a jam-packed weekend of road racing led by the Boston,
Paris and Rotterdam Marathons, three-time Olympic champion Kenenisa
Bekele should draw some attention to Sunday's SPAR Great Ireland Run
10-K in Dublin.
Bekele, 29, rarely runs on the roads. He's run only two road 10-K's in
his career: 28:54 at La Courneuve in France in 2001 (7th place), and
28:50 in Scicli in Italy in 2003 (first). His most recent road race was
a 15-K in the Netherlands back in 2008, and he has only raced once so
far this year: placing 11th at a cross country race in Scotland last
January.
Challenging Bekele on the two-loop course in Phoenix Park will be
Spaniards Jesus España, the defending race champion and 2010 European
Championships silver medalist at 5000m, and Ayad Lamdassem, the 2010 and
2011 European Cross Country Championships silver medalist. Other top
entrants include Italy's Daniele Meucci, the 2010 European Championships
5000m bronze medalist; Ireland's Mark Kenneally, a likely pick for the
Irish team for the 2012 Olympic Marathon; and Britain's Nick McCormick,
the fifth place finisher at the 2006 Commonwealth Games 1500m.
Britain's Hellen Clitheroe leads the women's entry list. The 2011
European Indoor Championships 3000m gold medalist will battle Ireland's
Linda Byrne, compatriot Charlotte Purdue (the defending champion),
France's Christelle Daunay, and Italy's Rosaria Console.
The course records are 28:35 by Australia's Craig Mottram and 31:41 by
Ethiopia's Meselech Melkamu. In last year's event --which recorded 7960
finishers-- winners España and Purdue clocked 29:26 and 32:42,
respectively.
The SPAR Great Ireland Run is organized by Nova International, the
organizer of Britain's popular Great Run series, including the world's
second largest half-marathon, the Bupa Great North Run.
*Full Men's Start List *Full Women's Start Lists
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