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

Bekele going for yet another of Geb’s World records

Two years ago Haile Gebrselassie set the World two mile record of 8:04.69 in Birmingham. Like most things he’s done on the track, those figures will come under fire from fellow Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele whose hunger for success has survived the tragic loss of his fiancée at the start of the year.

“Despite everything I achieved last year, I am still driven to do more and more in athletics,” says the World and Olympic 10,000m champion. “I am still as hungry to do as much as I possibly can in this sport, and targetting the two mile record in Birmingham is the next of those targets.”

The 22 year-old will be hoping his form’s improved since the end of January, however, when he was surprisingly beaten over 3000m in Boston by Ireland’s Alastair Cragg, clocking a modest 7:41.42. Last year he took his master’s World 5000m record in Birmingham and he’ll be after another $30,000 bonus this time around.

Perhaps he’ll share it with his younger brother, Tariku, who’ll be one of the pace makers, but he’ll have to look out for his countryman, Markos Geneti, who beat Gebrselassie here last year and has a 2005 best for 3000m of 7:40.72.

Lagat faces Rotich, Heshko and Baala at 1500m

One of Gebrselassie’s lesser achievements is to be the second fastest indoor 1500m runner in history. The second fastest outdoor runner over that distance is Bernard Lagat, who will take on fellow Kenyan Laban Rotich on Friday, plus World indoor silver medallist, Ivan Heshko, and World outdoor silver medallist, Mehdi Baala of France. Heshko, in particular, is in fine form – he set a new Ukrainian record of 3:33.99 in Karlsruhe last weekend.

Lagat, the World indoor 3000m champion, will start as favourite following his blistering mile in Fayateville last Saturday. The Olympic silver medallist’s run of 3:49.89 made him the third quickest indoor miler ever, behind Hicham El Guerrouj and Eamonn Coghlan. En route to that amazing time, he also ran the second quickest 1500m of the year, 3:33.34.

This will be the last outing of Lagat’s indoor season before he prepares for an outdoor campaign in which his goals are simply “to run faster than I have ever run before”.

Defar and Dibaba to fight for 3000m supremacy

Ethiopians feature prominently in the women’s distance events too. Last year at the meeting, Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba became the third and fourth quickest 3000m runners in history. This time they’ll be hoping to push each other towards Berhane Adere’s World record of 8:29.15.

In 2004 Defar went onto become a World indoor and Olympic champion, and she leads this year’s World lists with 8:30.05. But it will be the World outdoor champion Dibaba who starts as favourite following her demolition of Adere’s 5000m record in Boston on 29 January. Clearly the 19 year-old wonder is well up for the challenge.

“I ran a personal best in Birmingham last year and the quality of the field again this year means that a fast time is possible,” she said.

Hard on their heels will be Britain’s Jo Pavey. She broke Liz McColgan’s long standing British record in Birmingham last year, and a few weeks ago she followed Adere in Stuttgart to clock the year’s third best time, 8:42.46, putting Elly Van Hulst’s European record of 8:33.62 within her sights.

courtesty of iaaf

VIPAM

He is going to run 8:00

THIS THREAD IS SO LONG!

I predict Bekele at 8:01.63

8:02 indoors.

I'm not sure Kenenisa is as fit as in past years and really hope I'm wrong on this but I my prediction is 8:05.0!

how lovely for you to copy and paste another Iaaf article for us Vipam, and give your precise guesses based on your fanatical obsession with an athlete.

Was it you who tried to mathematically calculate how much time the death of Alem would cost Bekele? You sick, depraved loser.

Hopefully the IAAF will fine you soon enough for copyright infringement.

lebid (another new posting name)

No it wasn't me or anyone trying to calculate anything thats your sick morbid mind. It would seem that your are more obessed with me than I am with any athlete. Give me your P.O. Box and I'll mail your my running singlet from my last race. Why don't you grow a backbone and start using your regular posting name (I know your a regular poster here) instead of creating all these new ones!

Oh yeah I'll also give you the option of buying my old running shoes before I throw them out, because I know your my number one obessed fan!

Sincerely your hero-VIPAM

and so I've posted something pertaining to the thread unlike you-Bekele rocks and runs very fast (LOL).

Page 26, from Vipam:

"The SAD and alarming news of his fiancee dying and how she died will affect Kenenisa's run in the near future. Alem and Kenenisa went out for a training run and she collapsed during the start of the run, after such a tramatic experience will he be ready for such a tough record as Daniel's 7:24.90."

Who the hell do you think you are?

If my pointing this out is morbid, then I shudder to think of the word to describe your sick antics.

You're pretty sick, bud. Thanks, I don't need your nasty clothing from your last race.

The fact that you respond so strongly to this stuff shows that you realize you are really unhealthily obsessed.

Wow, man, that was original, I haven't heard such a stinger as that in...wait, I have seen it before from you.

Contrary to your own delusions, there are plenty of people who realize that you have some issues posting your ridiculous forecasts of some WR for Bekele a day after his fiancee died.

I hope you will take the time to read your own nonsense, grow your own backbone, and stop infringing copyrights left and right. Then maybe you will merit some measure of respect.

Does anyone know where to find the entry list for the race, I know Kenenisa's brother will be one of the rabbits in this record attempt?

Lebid I think you do want Vipam's clothing.

justmyguess wrote:

Lebid I think you do want Vipam's clothing.

Then I think you need some professional help.

As for stating one's "real name," I do believe that I have never before heard of someone's first or last name being "Vipam." A strange coincidence, no?

Lebid is this the only thread your following? I decide to check it out since it is so long and every other post today is yours and its nothing to do with the topic. Let it go man nobody wants to read about your disdain for another poster.

I think the women's 3000m race will be more interesting than Kenny B's record attempt. Is the women's race being billed as a clash between the 5000m Olympic Champ vs 5000m World Champ or record attempt?

lebid you're a dick.

moving on now. i can't really say what kind of shape bekele will be in for his wr attempt but i don't see it happening. after his fiancees death and missing training because of it i don't think he's quite ready. he will bounce back, it just takes time.

Lebid you suck.

berin wrote:

lebid you're a dick.

Ah, the refreshing, classic character assessment offered by the missing link who has not a clue who he is talking to or what he is talking about.

Hopefully, you might take a read sometime of what I wrote. Then, analyze what your conflict with this is and we can discuss it. This is precisely what was done with Vipam's nonsense.

I assure you, had any other person said the same thing, he would have merited a tongue lashing of equal severity. It is only that Vipam has made himself a target by painting himself a Bekele enthusiast, then forecasting the effect of his tragic loss on his RUNNING (re: something much less important than family).

That is sick stuff, and if you don't see it, God help you.

Lebid noone wants to hear your nonesense because you are the biggest loser on this board. Your still tongue lashing a poster who is 10 x better than you in every way imaginable instead of posting noteworthy information like Kenny B losing 2 races in a row:

Two Miles

1 Markos Geneti ETH (30.5.84) 8:14.28

2 Kenenisa Bekele ETH (13.6.82) 8:15.49

3 Paul Bitok KEN (26.6.70) 8:24.22

4 Mohamed Moustaoui MAR (2.4.85) 8:26.49

5 Monder Rizki BEL (16.8.79) 8:27.23

6 John Mayock GBR (26.10.70) 8:27.91

7 Youssef Baba MAR (7.8.79) 8:39.56

8 Steve Hepples GBR (6.1.80) 8:45.46

9 Michael Skinner GBR (21.11.79) 8:57.88

I recently talked to one of my Ethiopian classmates and he said that the majority of the Ethiopians have concerned about Kenny B. The start of the year the question was will he run both the long and short courses, now some of his own countrymen are questioning if he can win either one? The outdoor track season is another story but many think he lost too much training and may not have enough time to run his best by World Cross Country Championships.

Kenny B. have to qualify for the Ethiopian X-Country team instead of being automatically selected thats interesting. I thought the World Champion in Track and X-Country were automatically eligible to return?

Is this another of Ethiopia's ploys to show Kenny B is ready for Worlds, have him run only a decent race-finish in top 5 but not win-and explode at the big dance, or are they really concerned about his fitness?

http://www.iaaf.org/WXC05/news/Kind=2/newsId=28647.html

Honestly I think we are all getting alittle tired of hearing that Kenenisa will not double and then later the federation and he announces he will. The first two years it was announce he would not double I didn't believe it; however, this year I definitely fell for the psychological ploy. It has been announced that Kenenisa will double along with several of his teammates.

http://www.letsrun.com/2005/bekxc.php

I know several people will think I'm crazy but Kenenisa doesn't care about going undefeated (only CHAMPIONSHIPS count to him) and I wouldn't be surprsied to see him run away with both titles this year (his early defeats may have been planned). Kenenisa is after all known for his pre-meet mental tactics and may be deploying some of his own against Kenya (who vows to beat him this year)! What is your thoughts-do you think Kenenisa will win both titles this year and do you think he sandbagged his indoor campaign?

VIPAM