Bekele well beaten over 15 km in Nijmegen

T&FN was reporting a possible stress fracture, enough that Hermens didn't want Bekele to run. It looks like Bekele had a rough last 5k as he was up 17s on the eventual winner at 10k.

I saw it coming.Actually Bekele did not want to run at all because he felt he needed to rest more from last season but Jos hermans was having none of it,he wanted bekele to take Felix Limo's record fullstop and so the huried training led to the stress fracture.

bekele is my favorite runner. not just because he's very fast, but because he mixes it up. By that, I mean that he, unlike most other fast runners, does various races and terrains. He doesnt just stick to track 5ks and 10ks. You'll find him on the roads, the 1500m, the 3000m, BOTH cross country races (long and short), etc

coach35 wrote:

I saw it coming.Actually Bekele did not want to run at all because he felt he needed to rest more from last season but Jos hermans was having none of it,he wanted bekele to take Felix Limo's record fullstop and so the huried training led to the stress fracture.

According to the report in the Gelderlander newspaper, Hermans did not want Bekele to race today. The MRI scan that he had performed on Friday in Haarlem showed the beginnings of a stress fracture.

I did not notice it when he passed us at 14km, but having seen the TV highlights, he was limping badly from about 10 km. Seemed happy enough to have finished though.

Also in the same race, Mestawat Tufa missed the women's WR for 15 km by a single second.

Bekele had a very hard time convincing Jos Hermans that he needed to pull out of the Newcastle's 2 miles road race in England because he was exhausted.Hermans only agreed to it after bekele promised him to do his best to make it for the Nimjigen 15K and take out Limo's 15k record.This is how jos herman's treats his runners,for him it is all about his personal glory and making money he only ever gives in to an athletes genuine request when the whole world says it is not right.

So what you're saying is Bekele will be out of training for a signigicat amount of time due to a stress fracture. Which, in turns, gives others hope to possibly beat him next year!

If what is being said about them seeing a stress fracture coming on before this race is true, I cannot understand why Kenenisa or Jos would have any thoughts other than to call it off. I can understand Hermens being a greedy bastard and pushing Kenenisa to run something that he doesn't want to, but not when there is evidence on the table that doing so could screw up the entire upcoming season. Whatever the actual circumstances, I hope Kenenisa is able to recover quickly because it's never good when the top guy in the sport is not running.

coach35 wrote:

Bekele had a very hard time convincing Jos Hermans that he needed to pull out of the Newcastle's 2 miles road race in England because he was exhausted.Hermans only agreed to it after bekele promised him to do his best to make it for the Nimjigen 15K and take out Limo's 15k record.This is how jos herman's treats his runners,for him it is all about his personal glory and making money he only ever gives in to an athletes genuine request when the whole world says it is not right.

That's why Jos Hermans' athletes have failed so often, especially Bekele. Remember how in 2004 Bekele lost the Olympic 5000m to some unknown Moroccan who just came out of nowhere? And there are so many other losses in Bekele's career that can't be attributed to crippling heat or the death of a fiancee--too many to name. And while many will celebrate Bekele's world records, it's so obvious to any observer that he could have broken 12:30 and 26:00. When you're Bubka maybe it's better to break a WR by just a slight margin but we all know that Bekele was more capable than just 12:37 or 26:17. Almost certainly due to Hermans' greed.

Coach35 is right. Some may wrongly say this incident was completely isolated and occurred in the least important part of the preseason well before the least important winter and summer racing seasons (after the Olympic year). However, these naive idiots don't realize that Nijmegen is far more important the Olympics. I remember reading an interview with Ron Clarke where he laments that his Olympic failures paled in comparison to his Nijmegen failures. Those were the ones that really ate at Clarke's soul, as Bekele's recent Nijmegen humiliation surely does now.

If only someone as intelligent Coach35 could coach Bekele, we might see him and Hermans' other athletes having some real success.

haha ouch

Bekele?.... stress fracture?....

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm an ignorant guy here so help me understand something. How come an agent is able to force his runner to run a race? If I'm Bekele, I employ Jos Hermens. Not the other way around. So, if I don't feel like running, the agent can't do a thing about it. And if he tries to force me into making a bad move for my career, well then he's fired. Isn't how this should work?

my first time wrote:

Okay, I'm an ignorant guy here so help me understand something. How come an agent is able to force his runner to run a race? If I'm Bekele, I employ Jos Hermens. Not the other way around

You're a typical Letsrun idiot. Hermans didn't want Bekele to run. Bekele ran anyway.

Athletes and managers generally have a contract agreement; each side has certain obligations to the other, and neither is free to just drop the whole thing at any time. So no, Bekele can't just automatically have the last word.

I thought African runners didn't get stress fractures?

This is sad news. Just yesterday I was reflecting on what an injury-free career he's had. Interesting that this is about the age where Geb started having achilles' problems. Hopefully Bek will be 100% by next spring.

Bekele can't just automatically have the last word.

Yes he does.

That unknown Moroccan beat Bekele twice. And he happened to have the Mile, 1500 and 2000 world records. You are an asshole dude.

Nobody is talking about junior ayele abshiro. He is a big talent that debuted outside the country last years xc champs.

If he keeps this up he will be a huge talent... and can be the net ethiopian to take the torch from Haile and Bekele... maybe we are seeing the beginning of another ethiopian king

Bekele's decision to run the race was not unreasonable, as he was obviously in good shape and well on his way to crushing the field when his ankle flared up.

He's never been seriously injured, so why do we just expect him to not race. His desire to enter the race shows why he's the best in the world, because he pushes through the pain. I'm sure he's learned from his mistake and will be 100% for world cross.