Seleshi Shine.. Built 17 Second Lead in 5 Minutes

I am a big Bekele-fan, but Sihine will destroy Bekele at 12k.

No double golds next year for Bekele.

I disagree. Having seen all of Bekele's WXC appearances, he is unbeatable over the country.

That said, I think Bekele and Sihine will work together to drop Kenyans and along with other Ethiopians, take the team title.

Kenenisa may win double titles at the World X-Country Championship, but it would only be because he don't attempt to. Sileshi Sihine is a tremedous talent; however, he is not ANY threat to Kenenisa this year or 2004 in any median.

That is not to say that he won't be in future years. Kenenisa is the favorite for any race he starts especially X-Country and Sileshi will need to improve leaps and bounds to catch a still improving Kenenisa.

If the long-course is first Sileshi or anyone else don't stand a chance against Kenenisa; however, if he attempts the double and the long course is last-he MAY be slightly beatable. The Kenyans would take advantage of the former scenario and push the pace in the short-course to literally sprinting the 4000m in attempt to weaken Kenenisa.

Vipam

You havent seen shine at his fittest...yet...i promise you that he will blow your mind...check him out in person.. and you will leave.. with your hair standing..

watch!!!.. you think Kenny is bad... Shine trains harder... and has more heart.. he may not have the physical/athletic build of Kenny B and Haile geb.. but he has the lungs.. of a elephant....and the heart of a lion...

Why...do...you...write...like...this...?

Remember when Shine kicked Bek's butt in a 10k track race in Ethiopia last year? Ok, fine, Bek has dusted Shine in all of their other meetings as far as I know, but, Shine's recent X-C run was CERTAINLY Bek-esque. He destroyed a great field, just as Bek has done the last few years.

Shine will shine for sure this season, but can Bek be beaten?

Or, will Tergat the Terrible torch them all?

(why oh why won't Geb run some X-C??? He could be right in that battle if he wanted! Geb, Bek, Tergat, Shine, the rest of the Kenyans in a 12k X-C race??? WOW)

my two cents here... Terget is extremely strong from all those marathon miles and he has wheels too. all he has to do is cut back teh mileage and sharpen up his workouts and he can be even better than those 5 years he dominated the world xc scene. he will be very, very tough to beat if he is going to focus on xc this winter... he is the best ever over hill and dale and remember he won those 5 titles when there was ONLY ONE race, a 12k...

also, it would be awesome to see him duel it out with geb for old times sake, that would be awesome. he can ultimately dublicate what paula radcliffe did back when she won her first xc title and then broke the world marathon record. except terget has done one of two already...

my money is on terget if and only if he FOCUSES his training around xc this winter and stays healthy (which is not a problem). also, with him, kenya is going to be very tough to beat and if ethiopia runs geb, silhane, bekele and 2 or 3 of their other studs then the race can go either way very few points. it could even be as little as a ONE point win, the first ever in wxc history. once again, only if terget runs for kenya and eth. features the top three from world track 10k this past summer.

could be one to remember and one for the record books. i wish morocco could return to the glory xc days too, but many of their studs are aging and beyond their prime it seems, but they do have some very young studs coming up.

Admiral Stockdale wrote:

(why oh why won't Geb run some X-C??? He could be right in that battle if he wanted! Geb, Bek, Tergat, Shine, the rest of the Kenyans in a 12k X-C race??? WOW)

It would be a great race but Gebrsealssie doesn't run cross because:

he's not as competitive in XC as in indoors

and he can make more money in indoors (related to the first reason).

Geb has given X-C a good solid shot over the years, but clearly has decided it's not worth his effort. In 1992 he was 2nd (to I. Kirui) in the World X-C junior race in Boston. In the men's senior race, he was 7th in 1993, 3rd in 1994, 4th in 1995, and 5th in 1996, his last appearance. Not a bad record, by any means, but not one that remotely compares with his track credentials.

Gebre has too much reactive feet for running cross country. For using in the best way his attitude, Gebre needs a very hard ground, not soft and not flat like cross country courses. On the contrary, Bekele is very strong in his thighs, and uses his feet in different way.

Sihine (like Gebremariam) is taller than Kenenisa, and a high height is not favourable for running cross. In Bruxelles, probably, the course could be very muddy : in this case, nothing to do against Bekele, no match with Sihine and the Kenyans.

In any case, forget Tergat : he will not run World Championships. I'm sure that his focus is London Marathon, so WCCCh are not possible in top shape (and, if he's not in top shape, of course has no reason to compete).

Instead, short race can be very interesting, because is my intention to put Shaheen in the race. He never ran a cross, expecially with mud, and never will run before WCCCh (the only race could be World Military Cross Ch. in Lebanon on 7th of March, but on a very dry course), so may be that his attitude for cross is not very high ; but, having a wonderful talent, I'm curious to discover his possibilities in this new event.

What if El G ran the short race (and did some X-C training)??

would he have a shot at winning?

I think that never El Guerrouj will run a cross. In any case, he could have some chance with a dry ground, but not on the mud. I'm sure that Bekele is really very more talented for cross, having more frequency, more strenght and more sensibility. My prediction is very clean : if is in his best shape, Bekele cannot be beated in every type of cross for the next 6-8 years, beeing the best specialist of cross that I ever saw, together with John Ngugi (better than Tergat, in my opinion). Nobody can grow, during next 8 years, so much for reaching the possibility of Bekele.

But, if something happens, he can decrease. So, only Bekele can defeat himself, speaking about cross country.