Kenenisa Bekele is not running the World Cross Country Championships on March 28...Perhaps he is reading Chet's posts regarding Paul Tanui and didn't like his chances. The Ethiopian team has been named and Kenenisa is not on it. Well, Kenenisa has had a great career, but it appears the portly woman may be warming up her vocal chords..
I dont think his career is over yet. But I have wondered, since he said it is boring to train by himself, If he might be losing some heart to achieve more in his career. I would have expected him to make a run at a half-Marathon by now or something.
But, I could be completely off base...Just an observation i've been wondering about. Of course the flip side is that he is so good at 5 and 10K that there is no reason to do anything else right now. That is also valid. Who knows?
Maybe he's too good at 5k/10k to lose to anybody, but not quite as good as he used to be--so no new WRs. But it's a bit early to start thinking about moving up...because marathon's the only way to go. Bet he waits until Haile is firmly off the podium to move up.
Come on guys, it was just last September when he doubled in the WC, and he did it by absolutely dominating the 10000 and out kicking Lagat.
Why don't we see how the summer season plays out before we start worrying.
I believe the guy has more WC and Olympic medals than any distance runner ever, and we're wondering if he's washed up because he didn't run indoors (and he mentioned years ago that he thought he was done with XC).
I think he should move to the roads.
A lot more scenic than the track and could get a good chunk of money if he did a handful of races every year. Actually, I don't know how many races he'd need to do to make a living, but surely there are plenty of road races offering $20,000+ for 1st place?
Wow, you people are mentally deficient.
what say you wrote:
I think he should move to the roads.
A lot more scenic than the track and could get a good chunk of money if he did a handful of races every year. Actually, I don't know how many races he'd need to do to make a living, but surely there are plenty of road races offering $20,000+ for 1st place?
So you think he should move to the roads for the "scenery" and to "make a living" ??? Wow, just wow.
The greatest runners in history (like Bekele) don't move to road races for the scenery. They do it so they can take on more challenges.
And Bekele could never win another single $ in another race again and he is all set financially. Who do you think he is, Mo Trafeh??
And the fat lady has not come CLOSE to singing on Bekele. He will dozens of more top races. He is just warming up.
He'll probably run yet.
He whines like this this time every year.
Why does he worry about the Kostre system at this time. Does Kostre not like to bother with the 'proper' training in March?
Why is te hIAAF sponsoring a major 1/2marathon the same weekend as WXC? All those guys should be running xc. And NYC, too? It is a shame that the worlds best npo longer regard World Cross as THE ultimate competition. Remember when DeCastella, Lopes, Jones all ran it?
Sad.
+1
His career is nowhere near over
trollism wrote:
He'll probably run yet.
He whines like this this time every year.
Why does he worry about the Kostre system at this time. Does Kostre not like to bother with the 'proper' training in March?
Get a life Fag. Trollism is probably some d-bag who never was good enough to make it to the next level after college. So his bitterness takes the best of him and continually bashes the greatest distance runner ever. How come I never see you bash A. Webb. I mean if you want to talk about 'proper' training and wasted talent. Well there ya go.
Ethiopian team for Bydogscz
6km Junior Women : Afera Gudfai, Genet Yalew, Emebet Anteneh, Waganesh Mekasha, Merima Mohammod, Genzebe Dibaba
8km Junior Men: Yekeber Beyibel, Gebretsadik Abraha, Mesenet Geremew, Belete Assefa, Gashaw Biftu, Debebe Woldesenbet
8km Senior Women: Tirunesh Dibaba, Meselech Melkamu, Mamitu Daska, Workinesh Kidane, Feyisse Tadesse, Abebech Afework, Belayenesh Wakjira (reserve)
12km Senior Men: Azmeraw Bekele, Ayele Abshero, Abera Kuma, Hunegnaw Mesfin, Feyissa Lelisa, Gebregziabher Gebremariam, Dino Sefer (reserve)
now this is the time for Kenyan to reclaim the senior men titele.
the only guy who is a treat is azemareaw bekele.
the other thing is that the senior women are the best i ever seen.
mesfin, I thought Gebre Gebremeariam was running the NYC half marathon this weekend. The headline on the letsrun.com front page says he is.
The Stache wrote:
mesfin, I thought Gebre Gebremeariam was running the NYC half marathon this weekend. The headline on the letsrun.com front page says he is.
He was supposed to but is now running World Cross Country.
Smart move. As time progresses, the physiology and psychologically of everything is in constant evolution. It might be true that he might be entering a difficult phase in his running, where nothing seems to be working in line (such training, attitude, timing, private life, etc etc)but again this is something everyone goes through at one point or other in their lives and only the very few can come back better than before.
I think this guy is very smart and is listening to all of this internal and external factors and most likely is simply saying "For different reasons, everything seems not falling into place and I just don't feel well, so let me back off for now and then come strong in two years from now" (and become the first and only man in history to win a third Olympic gold medal in the 10.000 plus one more cross country title before he goes into the marathon).
It takes a lot of discipline and planning to do this and I think that is one of his major goals. Also look at this way, this guy has been performing year in year out for almost a decade; his last performance this past summer it was just phenomenal (and most likely he was not even 90%) and the way he has been able to put it together year after year, no one can equal that or take that away from him (not even Lasse Viren or the Great one Haile)
He is the greatest distance runner in history without a question and believe me he is saying right now "I'll be back!!!"
mesfin wrote:
Ethiopian team for Bydogscz
12km Senior Men: Azmeraw Bekele, Ayele Abshero, Abera Kuma, Hunegnaw Mesfin, Feyissa Lelisa, Gebregziabher Gebremariam, Dino Sefer (reserve)
now this is the time for Kenyan to reclaim the senior men titele.
the only guy who is a treat is azemareaw bekele.
They used to have nine runners on a team and score the top-6?
How many score now? It looks like only 6 are on a team?
When did this change?
They may have changed it when they introduced the "short course" event, thinking that TWO teams of nine would be hard to field or it would water down the two teams.
Maybe they made the rule to try to reduce the stranglehold the BIG 3 nations have had on the event for 20 years, by making your depth less important ... but I think that it has the opposite effect.
Maybe now if you ran a team of nine the first 30-60 sec at the finish would be so packed with Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Morocco that nobody else would break the top-30?
Whatever the reasoning, I don't like the change. Lebed, Williams, Kennedy, Meb, and probably loads of other non-africans I have forgotten about have placed high and I like the idea of your depth being important.
Maybe more nations attend now than in the 80s and 90s when I paid closer attention and they just don't have room for a team of nine from every nation?
kenenisa will not be back and kenyan will anahilate evry one.
Sorry for not competing but I have misplaced my EPO. I have looked behind the couch and everything, but all I have found was a guitar pick and and old copy of Jugs magazine. I will have to call Jos and ask him if he can loan me some so I can be ready for track season.