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

January 4 is only two days away and after Kenenisa trounced

S. Lebed earlier this month, he'll face another stern challenger in Sammy Kipketer. Sammy Kipketer may prove to be ONE of Kenenisa biggest competitors on the track this year and if he can't challenge Kenenisa in X-Country this year noone can!

Just wondering how Kenenisa would have stacked up against

Paul Tergat and John Ngugi in their prime in X-Country? I honestly think he would beat Paul but not John Ngugi! What do you think about his chances in this fantasy showdown and why?

Vipam

Well Tergat is just plain faster than both of them on the track and by quite a bit too. He has a ton of titles to go with it. Ngugi was awesome but is just from a slower era. Tergat against Bekele on their best day, I don't anyonw could have beat Tergat at world cross in 1996. But Bekele is still young so who knows...

Sammy Kipketer a 26:49.38 10k runner beaten by 15 seconds in a cross-country race is incredible. Sammy Kipketer the World Record Holder in the (Road) 5000m and 10000m and 4th place finisher at last years World X-country short course

is one of the elite in distance running and wasn't able to handle 20 year old Kenenisa Bekele. The display he put on today against two (2) top Kenyans should give everyone a preview of whats to come for the young Ethopian.

Apparently Haile Gebrselassie thinks as I do on the subject as he stated, "He (Kenenisa) will be the one to break my 5000m and 10000m World Records."

OK, this is getting serious now.

Does anyone know his training program so I can copy it immediately (just kidding), and his height, weight, and real age?

does anyone actually believe that he is only 20 years old? I am not saying he isn't but i really wonder about all the junior records out there run all by kenyans that say they are only 17, 18, 19. I know for a fact that some kenyan runners have no idea when they were born and sometimes even the year they were born.

K. Bekele

Height: 160 cm, Weight: 54 kg, Age: 20 years and 205 days

born on 13 June 1982.

It would appear to me that the Kenyans and Ethopians are

FAR MORE ADVANCED than the individuals who are constantly and repeatedly bring up the age subject. The problems a country had 5-10 years ago can be indentified and corrected; however, some people evidently think Kenya

and Ethopia are stuck in a time stasis. Ethopia never realy had a serious problem with athletes not knowing their REAL AGE and sending it to the Athletic Governing Bodies and Kenya's problem has made huge strides towards eliminating the age problem for their athletes. ONCE AGAIN SOME (clueless) INDIVIDUAL TAKE THE LOW ROAD WHEN AN

AFRICAN RUNS WELL!!

Vipam

If they run well who cares what their ages are!?

Even those who are slow on the uptake will have to realize what this guy is about by next summer.

He is by far the stockiest Ethiopian I've ever seen- his quads are enormous for a distance runner, and especially developed near the knee, like a cyclist. I wonder if he is from a different ethnic group than Haile and the others?

Tron

Kenenisa Bekele is an Ethopian not Kenyan and he is not claiming to be 19 this year. The readers of this board

I am sure would like to read the evidence you have of the Kenyans and Ethopians still have problems with their birthdates in the year of 2003. Tron are you sure that you

aren't thinking of 1970's, 80's, and early 90's when it WAS a problem!

Vipam

K. Bekele medal haul in the two X-Country Championships

2001 (age 18)

Individual

Junior 8k- GOLD

Senior Short Course- Silver

Team

Junior 8- Silver

Senior Short Course- Bronze

2002 (age 19)

Individual

Senior Short- GOLD

Senior Long- GOLD

Team

Senior Short- Silver

Senior Long- Silver

Total Individual Medals- 3 GOLDS, 1 silver

Total Team Medals- 3 silvers, 1 bronze

Total Medals 8 medals in 2 years

his leg-volume is really incredible, skinny arms,

you can't compare him to Gebre, Haile was never so good in xc.Will Bekele run indoor-wc?

vibram:

"kenenisa's nuts called. they said get off us"

also, geb owns the 10k road record, not sammy.

i don't think we've seen the best from geb yet. as good as tegat and kenenisa were/are at cross, geb is better on the track. he is the most natural and gifted track runner i've ever seen. he just floats along running smoothly on his toes and can outkick anyone when he's at his best. does anyone else remember him winning world indoor 1500 in 3:31? what other 10k guy has that kind of range?

Mstriows

I should have known as soon as you misspelled Vipam that you indeed special. Now I am going to use very small words so that you can understand. The statement you made about Geb is true he's not finished yet; however, you do not know what Kenenisa will do by the time he is 29 years old.

-1st of he ran 3:31.76i at Stuggart on 1 Feb 1998

-2nd he win the World Championship Indoor in 1999 with a time of 3:33.77i

-3rd I am not into male gentials, that I will leave up to you. I will; however, continue to praise and recognize the individuals I choose to. Mstriows if you don't like it don't read it.

Later Mstriows

The world of athletics need to have a new face that is instantly thrusted into the ranks of Geb, Hicham, Wilson K.,

and Paula. In the 5000m the yearly best has yet to dip below 12:55 in the last two years and it is almost a lock that because of Kenenisa and the fear he will enstill that the yearly best will be much faster in 2003! The prelude of things to come.

Emil

Lets just for one moment imagine Geb was a really ugly mutha. Surly, bad tempered, bad with the press and didn't give pots of cash to hungry kids.

Lets say he was a 5 star jerk that nobody liked. Would so many people be lining up to defend his times?

Unfortunately in the times in which we live, if a runner has the right media image they become untouchable. Mourit...ugly surly mutha...BUSTED! Marion Jones... cute, nice smile...not busted. El G...handsome guy...not busted. Ben Johnson...ugly surly mutha...BUSTED!

I'm not saying either way that Geb is innocent or guilty but his times, just like those of his female counterpart Paula Radcliffe by the fact that they're so damn fast, are automatically the most suspicious out there.

Most of us assume Geb is clean because he's always smiling and he's a nice guy. Nice guys cheat all the time people.

The time for someone to show Kenenisa a challenge in Cross

Country is this weekend when he will face his strongest competitors:

~~John Yuda (Tan) 2002-27:06.17 10000m, 2nd Place-World Long Course X-Country finishing 6 seconds behind Bekele and 22 seconds ahead of the first Kenyan.

~~Albert Chepkurui (Ken) 2002-26:50.67 10000m

~~Abraham Chebili (Ken) 2002-12:58.98 5000m

if Kenenisa runs away from this field like he did Sammy Kipketer and Lebed, there may be noone to challenge him in x-country this year save his countrymen!

Vipam

Whats the best site for x-country results (overseas)?