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

Who cares! What matters is how fast you can run fool! What are your goals? That is what I am talking about!!

Of the 4 Vipam, I think El G has not improved as much as the other 3, they have made remarkable progress in 2004.

When you're as good as El G. there is very little room that you can actually improve, if he were able to old his best than that would be more than enough, he has yet to run a 5k this year though, which doesn't bode well for Athens, in my opinion he doesn't run enough 5k's and I hope he focuses on them a lot more after this year, he may train for the 5k, but he has yet to really run many, it is a completely different race compared to the 1500, and I think his 5k racing tactics can improve as seen in the 5k last year in paris.

27:05.11 New Oylmpic Record by K. Bekele and a blazing last lap of 53.00! What the #*$^!

I expected Kenenisa Bekele to win the Olympic Gold even if Haile was fit and never injuried; however, the ease at which Kenenisa injected 60 and 61 second laps and still finished with a 1:55 last 800m and 53.0 last 400m was unbelieveable. Sileshi Sihine and Boniface Kiprop (19 yrs old) also showed unbelieveable form in battling in the later parts of the race. Boniface Kiprop's relentless determination (yet impossible) to win Gold mostly likely cost him the bronze.

Kenenisa looks much stronger now then he did at the World Championships and I look for Eliud Kipchoge and Hicham El Guerrouj to have to have the race of their lives to beat Kenenisa in the 5000m.

VIPAM

I agree the ease at which he won the Olympic 10000m in 27:05.10 in those conditions shows Kenny Bekele is an animal. I'm wondering when will he lose a 10000m as he have never lost at 10000m? The 5000m and 10000m records are his to be broken over and over again throughout his career and I think he can destroy Komen's 3000m record. Haile won't be called the greatest distance runner of all-time but for maybe another 2-4 years and then Kenny B. will take that title too.

If they all stay healthy I look for at least six men* to run sub 12:50 in 2005 with Kenenisa breaking his own record in both the 5000m and 10000m (12:34.70 and 26:12.50)!

VIPAM

*Kenenisa Bekele

*Eliud Kipchoge

*Hicham El Guerrouj

*Sileshi Sihine

*Saif Said ? (aka Stephen Cherono)

*Sammy Kipketer (he'll be back)

*Abraham Chebii

it will be the first time in history six men run under the 12:50 barrier in one year and the ALL-TIME Top 10 will be rewritten greatly!

VIPAM

Kenenisa is the best distance runner I have ever seen and he should rule for just as long as Haile.

What happenned to Sammy Kipketer, he was the up & coming boy wonder a few years back, he seems to have fallen off the scope.

I don't think he could have done any worse than the Kenyans they sent this time around.

Come with me, one last time

As his speed has waned over the last couple of years, some people have suggested that Gebrselassie should have allowed his astonishing victory over Paul Tergat in Sydney to be his final scene on the track. But Hermans doesn’t agree.

“You couldn’t write a better story book ending than what happened on Friday,” he says. “The way the other guys went back for him. That wasn’t planned, it was just their feelings for him.

“Afterwards I said to Kenny, ‘You are the new king, but what you did was fantastic’. It was the young king going back to the old king and saying, ‘Hey, come with me, one last time’. It was unbelievable. And it was good for the sport too. It showed it is not just about gold medals, but human beings.”

In Haile’s case, incredible ones.

Matthew Brown for the IAAF

KENENISA WANTS A REMATCH WITH HICHAM EL GUERROUJ

Bekele sets sights on rematch and love match

Wednesday 1 September 2004

Ethiopia’s Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele isn’t yet sure if he’ll go for another distance track double, but after losing the Athens 5000m title to middle distance king Hicham el Guerrouj, he can’t wait to race the Moroccan again.

Another double?

“You never know,” he said about another double. “But what I would love to find now is an opportunity to race again with those I competed against and lost to.”

As he walked in the tunnels beneath the Olympic stadium after his race, his double gold bid having yielded one gold and one silver medal in his first Olympics, Bekele’s face lit up at the prospect of a rematch. “If some country could invite the two of us, and we could race again, I would be very happy,” he added.

The World 5000m record holder Bekele had kicked with about half a lap remaining at the end of the Athens race that had started out slowly, and when the newly crowned Olympic 1500m champion overtook him in the final straight, the three time double World Cross Country champion Ethiopian had no answer.

I should have kicked earlier “I made a mistake,” said Bekele. “If I had kicked with 400 metres to go, it would not have been like this. I couldn’t have run at a faster speed than that at the end, but I could have run at the same speed for much longer.”

Bekele’s finishing speed was on display eight days earlier when he tossed off a 53-second last lap in the 10,000m race he won in an Olympic record 27:05.10.

“It was difficult to run 10,000 metres and two 5000 metres,” said Bekele, who ran 13:14.59 to lose by a fifth of a second in the shorter race that was itself a rematch between the 2003 Paris World Championship medallists, with World Champion Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya ending up on the bottom of the podium, and El Guerrouj and Bekele moving up one step.

We tried to the best of our ability to hold him off

“The finish was extremely fast,” said Bekele’s teammate, Dejene Berhanu, who finished fifth, and had been hoping, along with Bekele and World Cross bronze medallist Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam, who ended up fourth, to fend off El Guerrouj and others. “We know he’s very strong,” said Berhanu. “We tried to the best of our ability to hold him off.”

Bekele’s manager Jos Hermens concurred with his athlete’s assessment of his finish. “If he had kicked earlier, and if they had gone out with a harder pace, it would have been better,” he said.

Regardless of whether the match-up he desires takes place soon or not, Bekele has plenty to look forward to in the near future. Having already earned the title of heir to the legendary Haile Gebrselassie by collecting global titles and World records with ease, Bekele appears to be following in the former World and Olympic champion compatriot’s footsteps in other ways as well.

Champion to marry champion

Gebrselassie married his fiancée, Alem Tilahun, upon his return from his first Olympics in Atlanta. Bekele plans to marry his fiancée not long after his first Olympic outing as well. “It’ll probably be some time in 2005,” he said.

Although Bekele’s fiancée, unlike Gebrselassie’s wife, is a runner, the two women have something in common: they have the same first name. “He’s copying Haile,” joked Hermens, who manages both men.

The bride-to-be, Alem Techale, is the 2003 World Youth 1500m champion, and came to Addis Ababa from the same Arssi region Bekele grew up in. Bekele feels he is ready for marriage. “After the age of 18, one has to start think about fulfilling family responsibilities,” he said. “Besides, since she is also young, we will grow together.”

The couple may well be representing Ethiopia together at future championships. “I definitely hope so,” said Bekele.

Sabrina Yohannes for the IAAF

Eluid Kipchoge ran 7:27 at Van Damme for the win but would he have beaten Kenenisa in that race? I think Kenenisa would have beaten him in around 7:22.0 and Eluid in about 7:24.5.

Vipam wrote:

KENENISA WANTS A REMATCH WITH HICHAM EL GUERROUJ

Bekele sets sights on rematch and love match

....

The question is when -if at all- is going to happen? I don't believe EL G would be interested in the rematch. Because, by winning, Kenenisa has everything to gain and EL G to loose. But again by winning we will say the same thing for EL G too i.e. he will reaffirm that he indeed is the dominant power in the 5000m as was/is in the 1500m.

BUT WILL THE REMATCH HAPPEN? HOPE IT WILL!!!!!

next year at Zurich... El Guerrouj vs. Bekele vs. Kipchoge vs. Shaheen vs. Sihine... The meet promoters are good; but the challenge would be getting them all to race against eachother

maybe we'll wait until the 5000m final in Helsinki.

If Kenenisa was to ever run just the 5000m at a Major Championship he could handle Hicham, Eliud, and Saif. The world couldn't touch Haile Gebrselassie 5000m record and besides Kenenisa noone else have come with 6 seconds of it in the last five plus years. Kenenisa if he decide to just race the 5000m would make it a time trial and win easily.

Trackhead...is there any chance of that happeneing? Will Shaheen def run the 5k?

I think that in 2006 is when we may see a hell of a clash for the million bucks... with no majors.. shaheen, choge, Kpchoge vs El G Vs Shine Gebremariam Wondimu and the Bekele Brothers.

Ouch...

NO

That would be a insane 5000m race if all of those athletes were to show up in a meet in shape, but with the 3000m and 5000m often being in the Super Grand Prix lineup in single meets I doubt all would ever lineup in one race. Even if they did and the race had great rabbit I doubt any could challenge Kenenisa in a WR type race, will be interesting to see how the next two years play out.

VIPAM

Vipam,

You need to post this thread now;

Stephen Cherono a.k.a. Said Saeef Shaheen: how soon will he totally annihilate the world records?

He has smashed the steeple chase record and will do it again next year in my view now that Boulami is back and Kemboi is Kenya's only hope at the moment. It will be a titanic battle.

I'd also love to see him battle with Haile, Bekele, El Guerrouj, Kipchoge e.t.c at the 5K. He says he wants to run the 5k instead due to less injury.

I also believe that he can challenge the 3k flat and also the cross country short course.