IS KENENISA BEKELE FINISHED?

He won't need to run faster than 12:52 will he? Haile ran a sub 27 at age 35/36. The onslaught of age takes away some speed but only makes the person move up and kick but at the next distance. I think KB is four years away from that though.

ok let me repeat it again "I'LL BE BACK"

ddffddff wrote:

well, Bekele's stated age is 28. However, it is obvious that he is at least 5 or so years older, making him 33. He is old, and he is wrapping up his career.

Yeah sure which means Lagat must be at least 41 LOL. I mean seriously, is it impossible for Bekele (or any other african runner) to be good at 28? I understand that most african runners lie about their ages but not all. Generalizing every elite african runner about their age shows pure ignorance.

well. wrote:

The 2 mile and 2000 are joke distances, so they don´t count.

The distances themselves aren't neccesarily relevant. His 4:49 2000m run indoors is a very serious time for a guy whose arguably best event is the 10k. And his indoor 2 mile beat a record that both El G and Geb took a crack at in the same week i believe a bit ago. Neither of those times are jokes, especially considering how many tries he's actually taken at them, and show he wasn't washed up as they are on par or better than any 3k time he'd run to that point.

And the point was that he's focused a lot more on other distances since he took the 5k/10k records.

Yes you are right and remember "I'LL BE BACK!!" ok I am not going to repeat it again, just wait and you shall see.

The 4:49, which was 4:49.99, was a stupendous performance for a 5000 or 10000 meter specialist. There is no doubt about that. There is also no doubt that this performance is more than 3 years old now. The indoor 2 mile of 8:04.35 from 2008 was also a great performance, although its 3000 equivalent is roughly 4 seconds inferior to Daniel Komen's indoor 3000. Nobody should be asserting that Kenenisa has not been superlative and the best in the world. The question is: is this dominance now in the rear view mirror? I would posit that his supreme dominance is now over.

Eh, I don't know. On one hand you have the injuries that he has seen this year and last, something that he hasn't had to deal with since very early in his career before his period of real dominance began. On the other hand you have the WC double that he pulled last year despite the early season injury.

The apparently increasing injury troubles are worrisome, but as long as they never get too serious and he is able to still reach high level fitness by summer, he should still be the supreme king of distance track races for at least another year or two. But I don't think he'll be breaking any of the big WRs (3,5,10k) without a full off season and competing season injury free...even a guy like Bekele needs everything to be in its right place to take down other worldly records like those.

So I agree if you're just saying he is one notch lower than he was a few years ago. But I disagree if you're suggesting he would no longer be the overwhelming favorite any time he toes the line of a 3-10k race on the track.

Bekele and Vlasic to highlight Rome Golden Gala’s 30th anniversary – IAAF Diamond League

Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia kicks for home in the men's 5000m (Getty Images)

relnews Rome, Italy - The participation of two of the IAAF Diamond League’s Ambassadors at this year’s Rome Golden Gala was announced this morning to the national media in Rome by FIDAL (the Italian Athletics Federation), who are the organisers of the fourth leg of the inaugural IAAF Diamond League, which will be held in the capital city of Italy on 10 June2010.

ddffddff wrote:

well, Bekele's stated age is 28. However, it is obvious that he is at least 5 or so years older, making him 33. He is old, and he is wrapping up his career.

its kinda funny when this gets brought up with some kenyan from a tiny, dirt poor village in middle of nowhere, kenya with a card saying "i was born in ________" written in sharpie for a birth certificate. But bekele is from one of the richest families in ethiopia and has a legit birth certificate from a hospital.

as for the thread's subject, bekele is done in the sense that he will never be as good as he once was. His peak was ages ago, breaking some novelty event world records doesn't mean shit, sorry.

Tariku will soon be the best Bekele at 5000 meters. It might be difficult to go from being the best in the world to no longer the best in one's family...

ummm...... wrote:We will see. I don't think he's DONE but his dominance is declining a bit. We should be asking how long before Ventolin^2 shows up and completely hijacks this thread?

thanks for the invite, but not needed

playing around with :

at his peak, i reckon he was a 12'36 / 26'12.5 guy for

51.3 , 1'47.6 , 3'30.3 , 4'45.5 , 7'19.2

now, basing on observation of his 1500, that he doesn't nowdays look much more than a high-3'31 guy at best, his potential looks to have preliminarily drifted out to :

51.7 , 1'48.4 , 3'31.6 , 4'47.3 , 7'21.7 , 12'39 , 26'20

i reckon he's lost ~ 7s over 10k, so chet is wandering in right direction...

chet wrote:The 4:49, which was 4:49.99, was a stupendous performance for a 5000 or 10000 meter specialist. There is no doubt about that. There is also no doubt that this performance is more than 3 years old now

working outdoor conversion is

101/102

which for 4'49.99 is ~ 4'47.2, which looks par for course 3y ago when you look at all-time 2k list

Ventolin, I would suggest that if you give him 4:47.2 for outdoors (and I'm not quibbling with this), then it is a tremendous performance, as it is basically coming through 1500 meters in 3:35.40 and continuing the same pace for another 500 meters. Considering Kenenisa's pb is 3:32.35 (I realize he hasn't raced it often), this looks to be a superior effort, beyond the extrapolated improvement expected in Kenenisa being an endurance machine and therfore likely to be slightly superior at 2000 in relation to 1500.

OK Ventolin, I hadn't seen your previous post. I guess I would say your numbers look to be in the ballpark, and I am generally in agreement with them, but I would just add that when you say the 2000 is "par for the course," you really mean it is close to what would be expected in alignment with his world records, which are, presumably, by definition, tremendous performances.

He's been busy training for the 700 against Bolt.

Don't think that will ever happen. Too much on the line for both men, but I know Kenenisa has more to gain from this. Yes Kenenisa is finished, he's finished kicking everyone's butt in 2009 and ready to kick some butt in 2010. He will dominate this year and may not lose at all...

Be well!

Jason

Am I the only one who remembers him wailing on Lagat in the home stretch of the Berlin 5000 final? Also his unreal and completely dominant performance in the 2008 Olympics at both distances? His championship record looks better in recent years than during his 'peak' years. He may never set a world record again (on the track, the roads are his for the taking) but that does not mean he is any less dominant than in the past...

Bekele must have been doing a lot of speed training if he was confident enough to take down Komen's record, could he recover and use some of the speed training he did to launch a WR attempt for the 5K instead at the grand prix? Does anyone know what his other plans are for the spring/summer season?

straight to voicemail wrote:

Am I the only one who remembers him wailing on Lagat in the home stretch of the Berlin 5000 final? Also his unreal and completely dominant performance in the 2008 Olympics at both distances? His championship record looks better in recent years than during his 'peak' years. He may never set a world record again (on the track, the roads are his for the taking) but that does not mean he is any less dominant than in the past...

Exactly. He won the 10k in '03, '04, '05 and '07, but both the 10k and the 5k in '08 and '09. His recent world championship and olympic victories have looked very impressive.

He hasn't really challenged the 10k or 5k records since he set the world records, but he has ran 7:25 for 3k and 26:25 for 10k.