March 7, 2003
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
posted to the web March 6, 2003
This piece was found on
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Kenya's agenda in the World Cross country Championship set for Lausanne, Switzerland later this month will be to floor
Ethopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the double World Champion.
"Kenenisa is our target and we want to see him down", national coach, Mike Kosgei said yesterday.
"Last year, Kenenisa took us by surprise. We didn't know him well. Now we know him," he said
"Last year, we miscalculated. While we were out to tame Mohammed Mourhit who is the world 12km champion, Kenenisa sneaked through to win the race.
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Taken from pg 28
March 2002 Track and Field News Magazine
With defending world long-course cross country titlist Mohammed Mourhit struggling and '01 runner-up Sergey Lebed falling off form, the familiar midwinter game of "pick a Kenyan favorite" has been taken up by harrir fans looking ahead to the Worlds.
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Taken from pg 30
April 2002 Track and Field News Magazine
...Richard Limo topped the long-course field at the nation's World Cross Trials in FEBRUARY.
In the short-course race Sammy Kipketer defeated a trio of past World Champs...
Kipketer and Richard Limo will look to prevent a long/short double by 20-year-old* Ethopian Kenenisa Bekele, the Haile Gebrselassie protege', who says, "I know I am young, but I feel strong."
*age 19 born Dec 11, 1982
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Now back in late February 2002 Kenenisa was quoted in a segment that appeared on various running sites/magazines as saying he wanted to attempt the double; therefore, how could the Kenyans not know of him.
He was undefeated in every 2002 cross country race with his last lose coming at the 2001 Worlds-in which he dominated the junior field and won silver in the Senior short course.
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Taken from pg 36
May 2002 Track and Field News Magazine
March 23, 2002 WORLD X-COUNTRY MEET
Kenyan track standout Sammy Kipketer did much of the early pacing until Bekele powered away with a mile to go to an impressive 12:11 finsih.
~Kenenisa wins on Saturday!~
Sunday March 24, 2002
As usual, the Kenyans sent a sacrificial rabbit, this time Hosea Kogo, to the fore. But he barely lasted a lap and none of his teammates, who WERE REPORTEDLY TIRED aftr a grueling training camp, were eager to lead.
Instead, Tanzania's John Yuda, better known as a half-marathoner, went to the front, with Bekele shadowing him.
The Kenyans dropped back after 3 laps, and then on the 5th and 6th circuits, Bekele, who appeared to be jogging, glanced over at Yuda and then simply glided away, wining easily 34:52-34:58.
Mourhit dnf
It was highly publicized that Kenenisa was attempting the double before the 2002 World X-Country Meet and in February also appearing on the
site one of the Kenyan coachings had an article inferring we fear Kenenisa, must devise a plan to beat him.
Now he states that Kenenisa won because they didn't know him well and they ran off Mourhit who never led the Long Course.
Why wouldn't they take Kenenisa seriously after he beat the short Course field the day before? They did take him seriously they just didn't have an answer for him in 2002.
Why would Coach Kosgei fabricate such false-hood maybe he knows how good Kenenisa really is and he's blindly searching for a psychological leveling point against the Ethopian.
Vipam