I just finished talking to my friend who is also an athlete told me after her training, she sat down and died. My heart goes to Kenenisa and their family.
I just finished talking to my friend who is also an athlete told me after her training, she sat down and died. My heart goes to Kenenisa and their family.
Sorry, I meant to say passed away. I don't know her but I knew she was very young and it is really sad to hear that.
The funeral is so soon after her death I wonder if an autopsy will be performed. If this isn't one then undfortunatley,EPO speculation, etc. will run rampant.
Bekele fiancee dies in training
The fiancee of Ethiopia's Olympic 10,000 metres champion Kenenisa Bekele has collapsed and died whilst the pair were on a training run.
Alem Techale, 18, who made her debut for her country in the 1500m at the 2002 World Youth championships, was due to marry Bekele in May.
"As soon as she started running she collapsed, and died whilst being rushed to hospital," said coach Tolosa Kotu.
The cause of death is unclear and her funeral will take place on Wednesday.
Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/athletics/4146397.stm
Published: 2005/01/04 15:28:10 GMT
Ethiopia, like many semetic cultures, usually burries their dead within 24hrs. Very, very sad.
sad, sad, sad... it's already bad enough, but can you imagine what it would be like to be running in Kenny Bekele's shoes today if his fiancee and presumable love of his life dropped dead right next to him from causes directly attributable to doping? talk about hell on earth. he would have to be sub-human to let that slide. of course, he's already proven to be super-human, so perhaps that would even things out a bit.
are you kidding me? an 18 yr old girl dies running with her fiance and you immediately talk about doping. Even if she was doping , that situation is awful.
Add this to your speculation: the guy in my high school class who was voted "best athlete"(football/hockey/baseball) dropped dead at age 23 of a heart attack.
It can happen.
My heart goes out to their families, and Kenny mostly.
Things like these happen. And it's very sad.
It's most likely a heart-disease she was born with. All endurance athletes should test EKG (ECG), so they could see any abnormal heart activites. It happens for time to time that soccer and basketball players just dies on the field because of heart disease that they didn't knew the had. Your can get heart muscle infection when training with a heavy cold or flu. TEST YOUR EKG AND SAVE LIFES!
More lovely idiocy on the boards. The cause of her death was probably some kind of heart arrthymia like long QT syndrome. An autopsy won't be helpful to diagnose this because if the heart isn't beating you can't see the arrhythmia. One hears about these kinds of deaths rather regularly: high school athlete dies suddenly of unknown causes. Sometimes a structural defect in the heart is found on autopsy but more often there is a malfunction in the electrochemistry of the heart. Finally, the circumstances of her death do not support the EPO hypothesis. The threat to EPO's thickening of the blood is greatest while sleeping when one's resting HR is at its lowest and the vascular is not dialated.
I know the young are resilient and perhaps Bekele will find a way to use his sorrow to fuel this year's running but it may also bring him down and cause him to question the sacrifices of his training. A runner who finds himself asking "what is life all about?" is not a runner ready to set new WRs.
IAAF shares grief of Kenenisa Bekele at tragic loss of his Fiancée Alem Teshale
Tuesday 4 January 2005
Monte Carlo - Alem Techale, 2003 World Youth Champion at 1500m and fiancée of Olympic 10000m champion Kenenisa Bekele, died of a heart attack this morning during training.
Techale, the 1500m World Youth Champion in 2003 was training with Kenenisa Bekele in Ararat, a forest in a hilly area on the outskirts of Addis Abeba. Techale suddenly collapsed and Kenenisa Bekele immediately carried her to his car. On their way to hospital, Alem Techale passed away.
Kenenisa Bekele at the IAAF Press Conference
(Getty Images)
Techale, 18, burst onto the international scene eighteen months ago when she became the first Ethiopian woman to win a major global 1500m title when she beat Russia's Maria Chapaeva in a closely-fought race at the 3rd IAAF World Youth Championship in Sherbrooke, Canada. Her victory gave Ethiopia its only gold of the Championships and helped the country to sixth in the medals table.
Bekele and Techale have been living together for about a year and were engaged. They had planned to get married on the 8th of May in Addis Abeba.
The funeral will be held in Arsela (ETH), the hometown of Alem Techale, tomorrow Wednesday January 5.
IAAF President Lamine Diack has expressed his condolences on behalf of the entire Athletics Family to Kenenisa.
In a letter to the 2004 Athlete of the Year, Diack wrote:"I remember Alem as an extremely gifted athlete who, after being crowned as World Youth Champion in 2003, looked set for a long and successful career in our sport.
"I also recall meeting her at the last edition of the World Athletics Gala when you were honoured as Athlete of the Year, and remember her as a charming person with a warm and pleasant personality. She will be sadly missed."
IAAF with Elshadai Negash in Addis Abeba
Oh for the want of a portable defibrilator!
Really is very sad.
Still, if I ran with Bekele, I'd have a heart attack too!
"Still, if I ran with Bekele, I'd have a heart attack too!"
In Ethiopia the mourning season for some of the prominent cultures is 40 days. In these 40 days people set up tents for the numerous extended family and friends, and friend's friends, who'll stop by to sooth the mourer's pain do what i consider strange things, like play cards, tell jokes etc (the idea is to distract the major mourners... which i don't think i'll appreciate. if there are Ethiopains here don't jump me. I just don't like leqso culture). Anyway, I know the sentence above is going to get whispered around the tent somehere on the 39th day.
"Still, if I ran with Bekele, I'd have a heart attack too!"
In Ethiopia the mourning season for some of the prominent cultures is 40 days. In these 40 days people set up tents for the numerous extended family and friends, and friend's friends, who'll stop by to sooth the mourer's pain do what i consider strange things, like play cards, tell jokes etc (the idea is to distract the major mourners... which i don't think i'll appreciate. if there are Ethiopains here don't jump me. I just don't like leqso culture). Anyway, I know the sentence above is going to get whispered around the tent somehere on the 39th day.
This thread is a bit crass, even by LetsRun standards.
I didn't mean to sound like I was accusing Bekele or her of doping, but I admit I expressed myself imprecisely. I do remember Travis Landreth.
I had a feeling that the doping allegations would begin to fly. Just like when David Kimani passed away, the doping shit stirring begins. Knock it off. You have no evidence to substantiate your claims.
Sadly heart diseases remain latent in some individuals until something like this happens. I am sorry to see this; such a young runner pass away in what was seemingly the prime of her youth.
So what is your point? People die everyday and mourners need to be comforted by members of the community. Telling jokes, playing etc are some of the ways of showing care to the bereaved. If you don't like it then don't go to the mourning service. If you think helping the sorrowful to get through their loss is weired then what else do you propose? Maybe your idea of providing comfort comes from paying shrink $200/hr. That is deplorable.