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

the other countries better send their lightest runners as someone who has ballooned from 140 to 210 pounds after not being able to run since september 2005, i can assure you running is not a sport for heavy people ( i know what you mean i am just being silly)

hi vipam,

Any body who can challenge kenenisa this time from kenya, eritrea or uganda??

top whom it will belong the team tittle????

12 days to go for the king to score unique acheivement in the history of athletics

Asfaw Solomon Tsige ETH

Bekele Kenenisa ETH

Bekele Tariku ETH

Geneti Markos ETH

Lemi Chala ETH

Negera Abebe Dinkesa ETH

Nigusse Ketema ETH

Sihine Sileshi ETH

Tola Tadesse ETH

for the first time kenenisa and tariku run toghter representing ethiopia

Ethio Boy wrote:

This is the weakest ethiopian and kenyan team in a while. .so the eritreans have a good chance of making inroads.

Kenenisa should win this easily. The best case senario for Ethiopia is...

1 Kenenisa

3 Seleshi

5 Tariku

7 Tadesse Tola

13 Solomon T

15 Ketema

44.. this will not win us the team title. But the key is Dinkessa.. if he recovers and finishes top 10.. like 8th we could score 36.

Kenya 2 4 8 9 10 11 =44, i think the 5 and 6th runners for Kenya will pull this out for them!

I think the Eritreans and ugandans will struggle to go 6 deep?

there 5th and 6th guys will hurt them.

Ethio Boy,

I will keep this for future reference.

Mesfin

If Kenenisa Bekele shows up fit as he has soon in recent weeks and healthy, noone will beat him FAIRLY! I wouldn't be surprised if an opponent enraged does something to prevent Kenenisa from crossing the finish line first (including something that may lead to that athlete's disqualification).

NOTE: The Kenyans are more adamant this championship about NOT LOSING the individual title on their home turf (especially when it would erase their champion of champion 5 time winner-John Ngugi- from the books as the best in x-country history)!

hallow bro,

As an ethiopian, i want kenenisa to win it.

using ugly ways will not help kenyan. instead train well and confront kenenisa and other runners.

i can gus it will be closest finish in the history of CX

Peter Njenga

Nairobi

The presence of multiple champion Kenenisa Bekele is good for the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa. He is always a big draw, a joy to watch on the track and in cross country running and his post-victory press interviews traditionally conducted in Amharric are inspiring.

If he loses in Mombasa, this would be one of the biggest upsets in athletics this year irrespective of what will happen at the Osaka world track and field championships in the summer. In victory, he will equally be a big draw for television and print media across the globe.

With his confirmed understudy in international competition, Sileshi Sihine, and younger brother Tariku Bakele, the world junior champion both in the Ethiopian line-up, a very competitive side is expected.

World long course champion Gelete Burika and track superstar Tirunesh Dibaba in the field, the women's eight-kilometre race will also be a joy to watch.

Hardly 24, Bekele is already a living legend having a knack to demolish what his mentor Haile Gebrselassie has achieved on the track.

He is a different phenomenon off the track where he is soft spoken, almost shy.

Each year before the world championships, Bekele is surrounded by one issue or the other which rather than demoralising him catapults him to greater achievement.

In 2005, Bekele suffered a major setback following a sudden death of his fiancee while they were training for the world championships at the Ethiopian camp back at home.

Few doubted whether he would recover from this misfortune. But he took on the best in typical style to win yet another double cross country gold. But Bekele appeared not at his best in the short course when he seized the opposition towards the end.

However, the following day in Saint Galmier, France, Bekele, who holds the world 5,000 and 10,000 metres records shattered the Kenyan dream with a solo run in the last two kilometres to win the long course gold.

So overwhelming was his form that his opponents were left overawed by this enormous talent.

In 2004, Bekele let word out that he was not at his best form following an illness.

He was also not categorical on whether he would double up, maintaining all these depended on how he performed in the now defunct short course race on the opening day.

As expected, he again won easily in the longer race. Last year he mingled with the crowd from Kenya, Qatar, Bahrain and few brave Europeans in the short course in a wind swept track in the outskirts of Fukuoka.

A journalists recording this epic battle described Bekele's moment of taking off to victory as "a rugby player side stepping a scrum." It was in a flash and his opponents were rather surprised.

This year he has remained studiously silent, leaving his minders to do the talking. His agent Jos Hermens said it would be great for Bekele, who announced his retirement from cross country running last year in Fukuoka, to run in Mombasa.

The Ethiopian federation also prevailed upon him for practical reasons. Minus Bekele, Ethiopia is no match for Kenya and would very easily play third fiddle to Kenyan exports to Qatar and Bahrain.

The same is true of Burika and Dibaba who are the pillar of Ethiopia's distance running success.

look for burika and dibaba to get a strong challenge from meselech melkamu who has greatly improver her running this year. as for kenya k. bekele should win but think how good kenya must be as samuel wanjiru did not even make the team and look what wanjiru did this week.

doug225550 wrote:

look for burika and dibaba to get a strong challenge from meselech melkamu who has greatly improver her running this year. as for kenya k. bekele should win but think how good kenya must be as samuel wanjiru did not even make the team and look what wanjiru did this week.

I don't think Wanjiru actually ran in the trials race. He was talked about before the race, but I didn't see any post-race articles saying that he had run.

courtesy of nation newspapaer

Had it been talking or writing on the paper kenyan would have won it for five consective time

Kenya: Cross Country: Coach O'Connell Says Bekele is Beatable

The Nation (Nairobi)

March 18, 2007

Posted to the web March 19, 2007

David Macharia

Nairobi

With proper planning, Ethiopia's defending World Cross Country Championships 12km title holder, Kenenisa Bekele can be beaten, a renowned athletics coach, Colm O'Connell said yesterday.

But another coach Jimmy Beauttah told Kenyans not to underrate the Ethiopian saying with a single race to run, the athlete will have a lot of energy to put in the single event.

He said the Ethiopian athlete with ten world cross country titles - five in 12 kilometres senior men's race and five in the 4km short course that has been scrapped, has lacked strong and organised opposition in the past.

Beauttah who is popularly known as Simba said, "if the he (Bekele) is over the winning life span then we can pull a surprise on him."

He cautioned that if the Ethiopian was still strong as before then it would not be an easy task to beat him, "considering that he used to beat us in two consecutive days in the past."

Colm, who is recognised for being behind the long list of athletics alumni from St Patrick's high school Iten said running as a team ended when professionalism was introduced in the sport. "There are no longer sacrificial lambs in the sport since everybody now wants to win and gain financially," he said.

He was speaking at the Moi Girls high school, Eldoret at the end of the Rift Valley secondary schools first term mixed games.

He said he could not make an informed comment about the Kenyan team now camping at Kigari Teachers training college in Embu 'since very little information is reaching the people.

He said all he knew about the team was what he was reading in the press. Similar position was taken by Beauttah.

I said earlier that I expect some unexpected things to happen at this World X-Country Championships. The staggering number of peopel on Letsrun's poll who don't think Kenenisa will win his 11th title is surprising. 11.2% of 1503 voters are betting against Kenenisa Bekele. If he isn't ill or sustained an injury during the race then those voters darkhorse vote will definitely be for nothing!

From what i hear the coarse is flat..no mud.. don't know how windy it will be.. but i am not convinced that these factors will impede Ambessa Kennisa..

Sure, any thing can happen in sports and noting is guranteed.. but on paper... this guy is a cross country monster.

If you go back to 2000.. when tergat lost on his 6th attempt.. it was because of being up all night arguing about something with his teammates. He lost to Mezgebu and Drug Cheat.. from belgium/morocco..

anyway, if tergat can get to 6 wins.. kenenisa can do it as well.

Guys, at this point in his career .. we are looking at hands down the best distance runner of all time...

He will romp to a 53 second last lap that from 600 out on a 27:05 10,000.. He is a truly sick person...

If Kenenisa looses this race ... i will be shocked.

Kenenisa Bekele (ETH):

On why he decided to change his mind and compete at the championships:

It was at this competition that I first achieved fame. It's also in this competition that my fans have come to love to watch me. And I also know that my country has achieved a lot of fame as a result of my achievements in this competition. So as a result I decided that as long as I am able to run, why would I miss this? So I'm very excited to come to Mombasa.

On the change to the programme this year, with the elimination of the short course race:

My preparation didn’t change much because there's only one race. That was a very good set up. This will not affect my performance. However I do wish that there were both long and short races again. It would have given me a chance to test myself and do another double.

Is it important to defeat the Kenyans on Kenyan soil?

As I see it Kenyans should be happy, as this is a friendly competition. And I have come here to compete in a home country of my friends and rivals, and to compete with them here. That is an expression of the respect I have for them. When Ethiopians come to Kenya and, Kenyans come to Ethiopia to compete, it's an expression of our respect for each other.

On the hot and humid conditions in Mombasa:

I've never seen the World Cross Country take place in this kind of heat before. I don’t know what kind of conditions I will encounter, or what kind of difficulties I will encounter. But the difficulties will apply to all competitors. It will just make it interesting to see how it unfolds.

On winning a sixth long course title, breaking his tie with Kenyans Paul Tergat and John Ngugi:

If I were to break it tomorrow, I would just be overjoyed. Right now we are tied, so to win a sixth time would make me extremely happy.

will Kenenisa leave Kenya with his SIX straight long course title? We will know in less than 9 hours!

I don’t know what kind of conditions I will encounter, or what kind of difficulties I will encounter. But the difficulties will apply to all competitors.

If Bekele did in fact DNF I'm not surprised. I still feel he could have won but was expecting something odd to transpire in the Men's race. Now the 5 straight victories remains in tact by Kenya's Legend Paul Tergat and Kenenisa's streak ends in Kenya.

hmmmmm......honestly I wonder what Paul Tergat said to Kenenisa yesterday during their conversation?

Pretty sure he cramped up.. but we will have to wait and see.

Kenenisa Bekele destroyed Tadesse earlier this year and now all of a sudden Kenenisa's gets injuried trying for his six straight victory. A victory that would put him over Paul Tergat (5 consec) and John Ngugi (5 but not consec) and in doing so on the Legend's home turf.

The article "I didn't come here to humilate the Kenyans". Sounds like a big pay off to me!

In conversation with Paul Tergat that appeared on IAAF. "Kenenisa seems very confident but he cannot say 100% victory for the course and the weather." More than the payout is it possible that Kenenisa was asked to loose as a personal favor, by the IAAF, to break the Kenyan Legends record on their home course would have in fact humilated them.