Peter Njenga
Nairobi
The presence of multiple champion Kenenisa Bekele is good for the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa. He is always a big draw, a joy to watch on the track and in cross country running and his post-victory press interviews traditionally conducted in Amharric are inspiring.
If he loses in Mombasa, this would be one of the biggest upsets in athletics this year irrespective of what will happen at the Osaka world track and field championships in the summer. In victory, he will equally be a big draw for television and print media across the globe.
With his confirmed understudy in international competition, Sileshi Sihine, and younger brother Tariku Bakele, the world junior champion both in the Ethiopian line-up, a very competitive side is expected.
World long course champion Gelete Burika and track superstar Tirunesh Dibaba in the field, the women's eight-kilometre race will also be a joy to watch.
Hardly 24, Bekele is already a living legend having a knack to demolish what his mentor Haile Gebrselassie has achieved on the track.
He is a different phenomenon off the track where he is soft spoken, almost shy.
Each year before the world championships, Bekele is surrounded by one issue or the other which rather than demoralising him catapults him to greater achievement.
In 2005, Bekele suffered a major setback following a sudden death of his fiancee while they were training for the world championships at the Ethiopian camp back at home.
Few doubted whether he would recover from this misfortune. But he took on the best in typical style to win yet another double cross country gold. But Bekele appeared not at his best in the short course when he seized the opposition towards the end.
However, the following day in Saint Galmier, France, Bekele, who holds the world 5,000 and 10,000 metres records shattered the Kenyan dream with a solo run in the last two kilometres to win the long course gold.
So overwhelming was his form that his opponents were left overawed by this enormous talent.
In 2004, Bekele let word out that he was not at his best form following an illness.
He was also not categorical on whether he would double up, maintaining all these depended on how he performed in the now defunct short course race on the opening day.
As expected, he again won easily in the longer race. Last year he mingled with the crowd from Kenya, Qatar, Bahrain and few brave Europeans in the short course in a wind swept track in the outskirts of Fukuoka.
A journalists recording this epic battle described Bekele's moment of taking off to victory as "a rugby player side stepping a scrum." It was in a flash and his opponents were rather surprised.
This year he has remained studiously silent, leaving his minders to do the talking. His agent Jos Hermens said it would be great for Bekele, who announced his retirement from cross country running last year in Fukuoka, to run in Mombasa.
The Ethiopian federation also prevailed upon him for practical reasons. Minus Bekele, Ethiopia is no match for Kenya and would very easily play third fiddle to Kenyan exports to Qatar and Bahrain.
The same is true of Burika and Dibaba who are the pillar of Ethiopia's distance running success.