Bekele is the new messiah of the track
Paris: Kenenisa Bekele is definitely not Jesus as his manager Jos Hermens rightfully said, but when it comes to the track or cross country courses he is very definitely a celestial being.
The Olympics should frank the extraordinary rise of another Ethiopian running phenomenon who hasn’t quite managed to wipe off the permanent smile etched on his great predecessor Haile Gebrselassie’s face despite erasing his two world records in the 5,000m and 10,000m this season.
Add to those feats his achievement of winning both the short and long races in the last three World Cross Country Championships, and the Olympic 10,000m title appears little more than a formality for the 22-year-old, who took the world title in the distance last year in Paris in only his second run at 10km. “Kenenisa isn’t Jesus because he can’t walk on water, but on almost any other surface he is unbeatable,” said Hermens, who numbers Gebrselassie among his discoveries.
An injury that forced him out of the Lausanne meeting in early July appears to have healed and now the only dilemma facing him is whether he attempts the double in Athens, something he failed to land last year in the Worlds when he finished third in the 5,000m behind Eliud Kipchoge and Hicham El Guerrouj.
While Hermens is keen for his young star not to do the double — he refused to allow Gebrselassie to do so in the 1997 World Championships in Athens because officials wouldn’t water the track — the Ethiopian federation are adamant he should try to emulate the last man to do the double, his compatriot Marius Yifter in the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
“To achieve something that not even Haile managed would be quite extraordinary,” said Bekele. “And to emulate Yifter, well that would be dream like, scarcely credible!” added the athlete who has built up an unbeaten streak of 20 over all surfaces.