Kenenisa Bekele: how soon will he totally annihilate the distance WR's?

sorry Vipman, but i think ElGuerrouj having to run 3 1500m races, the emotional side of the 1500final, the fact hichams races were closer to the 5000m (kennys 10k was a week before, he won it easy). hicham had to finish all of his 1500m races absolutely flying, this use of anaerobic/lactic systems would have hindered el guerrouj.

1500/5000 is harder than 5000/10000 anyday.

!!!KENENISA BEKELE VS. SAIF SAAEED SHAHEEN!!!

Top Pair For Cross-Country Duel

Wed 08 Dec, 4:09 PM

World champions Kenenisa Bekele and Saif Saaeed Shaheen are set to square up in what should be a thrilling confrontation in next month's View From Edinburgh International Cross Country.

The 22-year-old African-born stars clash over the nine-kilometre course at the BBC televised event in Holyrood Park on January 15.

Bekele is the reigning world cross-country champion over both long and short course, while he also secured the 10,000metres title at the Athens Olympics to add to the world crown he won last year.

However, the Ethiopian will not underestimate Shaheen - the former Stephen Cherono - who renounced Kenyan citizenship 16 months ago and became a national of Qatar.

Sixteen days after rebadging Shaheen won the world 3,000m steeplechase gold medal ahead of former countryman Ezekiel Kemboi.

But Shaheen was punished by Athletics Kenya who blocked his participation in this summer's Olympics.

Shaheen was serving a three-year change of allegiance period and had to watch Kemboi led a clean sweep of the medals for Kenya in Athens.

"There's no doubt in my mind he would have been crowned Olympic champion," said Matt Turnbull, athletics director for the Edinburgh meeting.

"Indeed at the steeplechase he has not lost a race for two years."

Turnbull added: "He broke the world record in Brussels just 10 days after the Olympic final and then shortly afterwards for the second successive year easily won the world athletics final by six seconds ahead of Kemboi.

"He's a remarkable athlete and let's remember he also outsprinted Hicham El Guerrouj - who went on to win the Olympic crown - over 5,000 metres in 2003.

"I'm not one for making predictions but I believe Bekele is going to have one of the toughest cross-country races of his career."

Shaheen had not planned a cross-country race before challenging for the IAAF world championships title next March.

But a change of mind will see him leave a remote Rift Valley training camp in his native Kenya for the Scottish visit.

Turnbull said: "Initially there was disappointment when he turned down an earlier invitation but after some thought and persuasion, he's coming to Edinburgh and Shaheen is a great addition to the meeting."

This weekend Turnbull will travel to the European Cross-Country Championships in Heringsdorf, Germany, to search for other overseas stars to complement the key elite athletes who have already committed themselves.

VIPAM

Kenny B.'s Interview reveals he plans to attack the 3000m Indoor World Record in Boston.

Runner's World Daily: How did Bekele's entry in Boston, his first race in the United States, come to happen? Were you trying to get him in 2003, when Haile Gebrselassie came? What convinced Bekele this was a good thing for him to be doing early in 2005?

Mark Wetmore: We really didn't have any intention of getting him last year. We were focused on getting Haile. We were aware that is was Haile's last season of competitive track and field, so he was a big priority for us. It was great to have him come last year. And I think in some ways having Haile come last year laid the groundwork for Kenenisa coming this year. We're one of the few meets in the world that focuses on distance running at that level. Like the Birmingham (England) Indoor meet, it's something that we really put a lot of resources toward, and something we really want to do. That's what we try to get as our marquee athlete every year - a distance runner.

RWD: How familiar was Bekele with what had happened last year? Did he take a lot of coaxing?

MW: I went to his people and asked if he was available, and they said "yes." It's not quite as complicated as we could make people believe. It's not only Haile who was here last year, but Derartu Tulu, Meseret Defar, and Tirunesh Dibaba. There's a great Ethiopian community in Boston and they really made them feel at home and welcome and gave them a very special reception. I think a lot of the athletes talked about it. Boston is a little bit more of a destination for them now as far as being a place where they can run fast. We pay attention to it and try and set up situations where they can run fast - not just Ethiopians, but anyone who wants to come and run fast. We try to make competitive races that are fun to watch but we also try and give people a chance to break records or whatever they want to do.

RWD: It might surprise people that there is such a large Ethiopian community in Boston.

MW: The only reason we knew was because of Fatuma Roba (the three-time Boston Marathon champ) coming to Boston for many years. And when Gezahenge Abera (the 200 Olympic Marathon champ) came to Boston, there was so much excitement around these athletes. Because we manage Roba and we manage Abera, we got a little more in touch with this Ethiopian community in Boston.

RWD: Is Bekele talking about a world record effort in Boston?

MW: He is. I think every time he steps on the track, it's a legitimate world record attempt (Bekele has the world indoor 5000 and world outdoor 5000 and 10,000 records).

RWD: Has there been much negotiation about the rest of the 3000 field?

MW: It's hard to put together a field that can run against him for very long. But Markos Geneti, a fellow countryman of his who won the (World Championships) bronze medal indoors last year, is going to run. He's the athlete who beat Haile at Birmingham last year in the two-mile. Tim Broe is going to run. Alistair Cragg is going to run. So we'll have some of the best people who are training in North America.

RWD: The Boston Indoor Games seem worthwhile enough now to be the sole North America winter stop for many top Africans and Europeans. There's really nothing else for them to stick around and do.

MW: There isn't. The new generation of athletes, unfortunately, likes 200-meter tracks. That's the reality of it. The Americans love running Millrose (in New York) and understand the tradition and what a great meet Millrose is. Sometimes it doesn't translate quite so well overseas to people who are now more accustomed to running fast. Indoors used to be all about racing, who beat who. Now, unfortunately, a lot of it's about time. We go out of our way to try and bring the best foreigners to Boston to have them run against the best Americans. When I was growing up as a track fan, watching the Millrose Games, that's what used to be so exciting, seeing the East Germans or people we wouldn't see anywhere else.

RWD: You've got Carolina Kluft, Sweden's Olympic heptathlon champ, coming, too. It looks like some of these stars aren't taking a break, they're picking up where they left off, to burnish their medals and their reputations.

MW: Kluft was European Indoors (to compete in this winter), which is big for her, and she's also young. She could probably train all year long. Kenenisa obviously puts a lot of attention into cross country, so he's always going to be fit at the end of January.

It's confirmed Kenenisa Bekele would like the Boston race organized so that he can definitely take shot at the 3000m World Record and use that as a springboard into the X-Country Championships. As of Kenenisa last interview during track season he said he wouldn't try for the double; however, I have now been told if his training continues as well as it has he may re-consider (that would be a big mistake).

Kenenisa may have no equal in X-Country but if you double enough against improving competition; such as, Eluid Kipchoge, Saif Shaheen, Sileshi Sihine, Little Geb, and now maybe Hicham El Guerrouj you may be asking for trouble. Kenenisa's permentioned plans of running only one X-Country Championship race and running some 1500m seems like the best chance of further improving his world records and defeating the only man he haven't defeated, Hicham El Guerrouj. The thing that may change his mind is if his training continue smoothly and if it does, can the others runners stop him at the World X-Country Championships?

VIPAM

The thing about Bekele is that he doesn't seem to back down from anyone. The only person possibly running WXC that didn't run it last year that could give Bekele any trouble is El Guerrouj, who is extremely inexperienced in XC (and didn't show anything impressive when he did run it, see Bautista's site for that info). I can't imagine that Kenenisa would want to give up his cross titles without even attempting to defend them.

There also seems to be a lot of pressure from the Ethiopian Federation on him to run as many championship races as possible. Whether this is a good thing or not I don't know, but it's seemed to work for him so far (especially since he runs so few races during the European season). If nothing else, it's great for spectators like us to see him as a factor in both cross country races and both track long distance races each year. Hopefully he'll run World Indoors in 2006 along with one of the WXC races, too.

Kenenisa Bekele to open his cross country campaign in Venta de Baños

Friday 17 December 2004

Kenenisa Bekele, the World and Olympic 10,000m champion has confirmed his entry for the 25th Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños (Spain) which will take place this Sunday 19 December.

Flying from his native Ethiopia, Bekele will make his first competitive appearance this winter season. The three-time double World Cross Country champion will arrive in Madrid on Saturday and travel to Venta de Baños (140 miles away) by car.

“We celebrate our silver jubilee this year and there is nothing better than Kenenisa Bekele’s participation to commemorate it,” said a very proud Miguel Alfambra, the race organiser, yesterday.

In addition to his third World Cross short and long course double , Bekele had a marvellous 2004 track season as he set a World Indoor 5000m record (12:49.60), and then outdoors established 5000 (12:37.35) and 10,000m (26:20.31) World records, before capturing the Olympic 10,000m title and a silver medal at 5000m on the heels of Hicham El Guerrouj’s victory.

Sunday’s will mark Bekele’s first appearance on Spanish soil since last 18 January when he took a commanding win at the Cross Internacional de Itálica, IAAF Permit race.

Bekele will try to keep the Ethiopian dominance in Venta de Baños following Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Sileshi Sihine’s double win in 2002 and 2003.

With every efforts focused on Bekele’s signing there won’t be other top Africans to threaten his likely victory on Sunday and so his stiffest opposition could come from Spain’s Juan Carlos de la Ossa fresh from his European Cross silver medal last week in Heringsdorf (Germany).

The main danger for De la Ossa’s theoretical runner-up place should be Britain’s Karl Keska who came seventh in Heringsdorf and led the UK team to a bronze medal at the European Championships just ahead the Spanish squad.

The local pair of 10,000m European champions José Manuel Martínez and Ricardo Serrano will also be in contention alongside European indoor 1500m silver medallist Juan Carlos Higuero.

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

---

VIPAM

facts wrote:

care to make it interesting???

the guy's an enormous talent, but you obviously have no idea how fast 12:39/26:22 is... i'll wager everything i own that he doesn't get either record... how about you???

Ha

Its quite interesting how many people didn't think Vipam knew what he was talking about with Kenenisa and I was one of them. The thread is loaded with no way he will and slowly the attitudes start changing in mid 2003. Great Thread!

Yes, that is true, and Vipam deserves credit for Kenny B prediction, absolutely.

BUT.....as I already pointed out, if we are going to praise him for his correct predictions, don't forget to point out his mistakes too. Here is another Vipam prediction from this thread, that was not so correct:

Vipam was dead wrong on that one. El G is 2 for 2 against Bekele in the 5k. Good try Vipam, but you blew that one.

Sir Lance-alot

I will be the first to point out that I was wrong about Hicham's participation in the 03 Worlds and 04 Olympics in the 5000m. His willing to venture to those race in a major championship forced me to look at him in a different light; however, I still think it was Kenenisa's understimating Hicham in 04 that lead to his defeat.

It is still my opinion that if Hicham and Kenenisa were to meet in a 5000m fresh and Kenenisa decided to go from the gun he would win either by breaking Hicham or running the kick out of him. I really hope we all get the chance to see that in 2005 either at a Golden League event or perhaps the World Championships.

VIPAM

Bekele is unchallenged in Venta de Baños

Sunday 19 December 2004

Venta de Baños, Spain – Ethiopia’s World and Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele captured a convincing win in the ‘25th Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños' held today (Sunday) on a windy and cold (7ºC) morning.

MEN – Bekele dominant; Martinez impressive

The 22-year-old star had a handsome margin of 17 seconds (100 metres) over Spain’s European 10,000m champion José Manuel Martínez who was himself another 19 seconds ahead of fellow countryman Juan Carlos de la Ossa, who took the silver medal at the European Championships one week ago.

On his first outing of the winter season, the three-time double World Cross country champion started cautiously and for the first two kilometres ran in the middle of a large leading group. Soon afterwards it was Martínez who injected a brisk pace which only five more athletes managed to live with: Bekele, Portugal’s Fernando Silva and the Spanish trio of De la Ossa, Ricardo Serrano and Juan Carlos Higuero, with Britain’s Karl Keska a few further metres behind.

Martínez’s lethal pace soon paid off and with 12 minutes on the clock (4th km.) only Bekele and Higuero remained on his heels.

It was exactly at halfway that Bekele took charge of the race for the first time with Higuero losing ground one kilometre afterwards as a result.

Throughout the penultimate 2.1km lap, the excited crowd witnessed how Martínez was able to get back in touch with the current maestro of distance running but in the closing loop Bekele proved to be the strongest by far running majestically, and building a huge gap over Martínez in a matter of few strides.

Bekele’s win was effortless. He clapped many spectator’s hands as he passed them during the last lap, smiling and at ease all the time. Bekele’s winning time was 30:26, while Martínez clocked 30:43 for a praiseworthy second place.

“I’m surprised because I didn’t expect to feel so good so early in the season; Martínez’s resistance until the last lap also surprised me”, said Bekele after the race.

The 33-year-old Spaniard only came 32th at the Europeans last week due to a cold he caught on the eve of the race. Martínez built a massive 19 seconds gap over third placer De la Ossa with the latter’s training mate Ricardo Serrano in fourth another seven seconds adrift. Portugal’s Fernando Silva overtook a fading Higuero in the closing stages, and Britain’s Karl Keska equalled his seventh position from the Europeans.

Asked on his plans for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in St-Etienne/St-Galmier, France on the weekend of 19/20 March 2005 Bekele remained adamant:

“I’ll only contest the long race there. I’ve been three times the double World champion and have nothing more to prove”. Bekele’s next appearance will be on 15 January at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country.

WOMEN - Britain’s Kathy Butler unopposed

The women’s race became a two-way fight in the third kilometre when Portugal’s Ines Monteiro and Britain’s Kathy Butler broke away from the field with ease. The key moment came with 12 minutes on the clock when the 31-year-old Briton increased the pace and left Monteiro with no chance of winning. From then on, Butler’s advantage became bigger and bigger and she romped home with some 50m (10 seconds) over Monteiro, who finished seventh at the Europeans last Sunday.

Morocco’s Bouchra Ghezielle (4:04.19 1500m specialist) completed the podium 16 seconds behind Butler.

The winner declared, “I felt great throughout the race and hope this is a good beginning for a marvellous 2005 season for me”.

Kathy Butler came 12th at the Athens Olympics over 10,000m and set PB at 5000m (15:05.51), 10,000m (31:36.90) and Half Marathon (1h11:24) last year after a superb 11th position (first European-born) in the long race at the Cross Country Worlds in Brussels.

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

Results

Men (10.6 km.)

1. Kenenisa Bekele (Eth) 30:26

2. José Manuel Martínez (Esp) 30:43

3. Juan Carlos de la Ossa (Esp) 31:02

4. Ricardo Serrano (Esp) 31:11

5. Fernando Silva (Por) 31:19

6. Juan Carlos Higuero (Esp) 31:27

7. Karl Keska (Gbr) 31:41

Women (6.6 km.)

1. Kathy Butler (Gbr) 20:38

2. Inés Monteiro (Por) 20:48

3. Bouchra Ghezielle (Mar) 20:54

4. Ana Días (Por) 20:58

5. Jacqueline Martín (Esp) 21:01

6. Helena Sampaio (Por) 21:06

7. Alexandra Aguilar (Esp) 21:11

I am wondering whether there were other Africans.

No other Africans, at least none that could finish in the top 10. This was probably just an early-season fitness test for Bekele (and it seems he is in pretty good shape - good enough to break several top European cross country runners and high-five spectators on the last lap of the race). The article says he won't race again till Edinburgh, and he's probably in the midst of pretty heavy base training right now for his indoor world record attempts and World Cross title defense.

The last report was Kenenisa would not race again until he faces Saif Said Shaheen about a week before Boston Games. The plan for Boston is tentatively to attack Daniel Komen's 3000m World Record (7:24.90) which in my opinion is just as tough as Daniel's outdoor 3000m World Record. I believe Kenenisa can break both of those records but it may take him working on his 1500m speed more, like he plans on doing in 2005. Those two records are some of the toughest in middle distance running.

Anyone have any speculation on how fast they think Kenenisa will run in Boston Games 3000m and during his Outdoor 1500m campaign?

VIPAM

before the 2008 Olympics Kenenisa should approach

1500m 3:29.5, 3000m 7:18.0, 5000m 12:34.5, 10000m 26:06.0

IntheKnow

I also think Kenenisa will achieve great things before the 2008 Olympics especially if he can remain without injuries. The record that will give him the most trouble is the 3000m as it is the hardest in my opinion in middle/long distance track racing. I think he CAN run faster than your prediction in the 10000m but not much faster in the 5000m by 2008. Kenenisa plans to run some 1500m this year and if he runs 3:30.5 or faster than he the 3000m WR will be difficult but within his grasp. Its hard to make any predictions on his 1500m/3000m times because you never know how many he will run if any. But I think by 2008 that Kenenisa can possible run:

5000m---12:34.0

10000m--26:03.5

(I think he will scare the sub 26 minute barrier in 2005 or 2006 and will become the first man to eventually break it)

VIPAM

If he scares the 26 minute barrier in 2005/06, then wouldn't he break in 2007/08? You have him down for a 26:03.5 in 2008, but then go on to say that he will break 26:00 one day. Wouldn't that logically happen the year after he first scares the mark. It doesn't make sense that he would run 26:05 in 2006, improve only 1.5 seconds during the next two years, then drop 4 seconds or more in 2009 after the olympics.

Vipam wrote:

But I think by 2008 that Kenenisa can possible run:

5000m---12:34.0

10000m--26:03.5

(I think he will scare the sub 26 minute barrier in 2005 or 2006 and will become the first man to eventually break it)

VIPAM

Why Vipam? What makes you an authority to have anything whatsoever to guess down to the tenth of a second his times? Do you know his training? Have you met him/watched his workouts?

Why the fanatical obsession with Bekele. You started this thread 2 years ago and still you bump it. I see in other places you begin messages with titles such as "Who can challenge the mighty Ethiopians and the Emperor Bekele?"

Is this some sort of kingship? Is Bekele, in your opinion, royalty of some sort for running fast? Do you see anything illogically wish fulfilling in your prophesies, particularly the ones degrading anyone who dares suggest El Guerrouj or Shaheen is better? Do you see anything illogical with declaring him th best in the 5000 when he has never won a major 5K title?

Really, my questions are quite sincere. I am sure many would like to know the answers.

Race a 1500

I started this thread over two years ago because I saw in Kenenisa the potential to become the best in the world. Since that time SEVERAL established editors/writers from various newspapers and websites have called him the new Emperor and the great distance runner ever. As far as someone being a better 5000m man than him that is certainly possible but I truly think his capablilites in the 5000m hasn't been reached and his tactically skills will improve greatly as well. The have been many posters who say El Guerrouj (and Shaheen?-how, why) is a better 5000m runner than Kenenisa and that is there opinion. I agree at this time Hicham have had much more success at that distance than Kenenisa. Now when Hicham lost the Olympic 1500m 4 years ago was the runner who beat him better than him, no just better on that day. When Hicham placed 8th in the 1500m earlier this year was those 7 runners bettr 1500m man then Hicham overall-CERTAINLY not....

If you check thru out the last year there have been MANY posters including myself who predict down to the last hundredth of a seconds and a few down to the last thousand.

If you notice my post I do post far more about Kenenisa but I praise:

my favorites

Gete Wami

Sun Yingjie

Mebrahtom Keflezighi

Deena Kastor

Huina Xing

Augustine Choge

Hillary Chenonge

along with a few others. This message board is about discussing topics concerning athletes and running related issuses.

VIPAM