Kenenisa Bekele’s 2016 Olympic Dreams Come To An End As 2012 World Junior Champ Yigrem Demelash Wins Ethiopian 10,000 Trials
by LetsRun.com
June 29, 2016
2012 world junior 10,000 champ Yigrem Demelash, 22, won the Ethiopian 10,000 Trials tonight in Hengelo and appears to have punched his ticket to Rio. Demelash ran a new pb of 26:51.11 (previous pb of 26:57.56 from 2012) to get the convincing win over 24-year-old Tamirat Tola (26:57.45), who was 5th at the World Half champs earlier this year (60:06) and third at the Pre Classic 10,000 (26:57.33), and Abadi Embaye (26:57.88), who is allegedly just 17 years old but ran 13:02.49 in Shanghai.
The 2016 Olympic aspirations of one of the world’s greatest distance runners, Kenenisa Bekele, came to an end today. Bekele, who after not being named to the Olympic marathon team for Ethiopia had indicated he was unlikely to go for a 10,000 spot, was a surprise entrant but he was listed as a DNF. Bekele wasn’t the only prominent DNF as 2011 world champ and 2013 silver medallist Ibrahim Jeilan, the last man to beat Mo Farah at a global championship, was also listed as DNF. We say “listed as” as DNF shows up next to their names in the results. But given that we haven’t seen pictures or full video of the race, we can’t confirm that either man actually made it to the start line.
Jeilan’s DNF was surprising as he’d been running well this year as he was 5th in the Pre Classic 10,000 (26:58.75) and then ran a 5000 pb of 13:03.22 to win in Stockholm.
Demelash has a 5000 pb of 13:03.30 (2012) and half-marathon pb of 59:49 (March this year).
Results
1 Yigrem Demelash 26:51,11
2 Tamirat Tola 26:57,45
3 Abadi Embaye 26:57,88
4 Belay Tilahun 27:11,83
5 Adugna Takele 27:20,65
6 Leul Gebresilase 27:26,69
7 Abayneh Ayele 27:35,83
8 Tebalu Zawdue 27:37,25
9 Azmeraw Mengistu 27:40,76
10 Guye Adola 27:55,05
11 Yitwale Kinde 27:58,22
12 Bonsa Dida 28:13,84
13 Mohammed Ziani 28:14,01
Kenenisa Bekele DNF
Ibrahim Jeilan DNF
Birhanu Legese DNF
Yenew Alamirew DNF
Mule Wasihun DNF
Juan Antonio Pérez DNF
Roy Hoornweg PACE DNF
Solomon Berihu PACE DNF
Fentahun Hunegnaw PACE DNF
Imane Merga DNF
Talk about the race on our messageboard: MB: Official Ethiopian 10,000 Live Discussion Thread.
There were some unofficial splits on the boards.
400m ~ 62.5
1k ~ 2:43
2k ~ 5:23.58
3k ~ 8:08
4k ~ 10:49.07
5k ~ 13:32
6k ~ 16:14.22 ~ no runners mentioned yet
7k ~ 18:53
8k ~ 21:36 ~ post the positions if you know
Yigrem Demelash leading most of it, together with Abadi Embaye and in 3rd place sitting in is Tamirat Tola. 3 well clear now
Yigrem Demelash now pushing forcing a gap, Tamirat Tola trying to close together with Abadi Embaye
9k ~
9000m sorry no split 🙁 Tola, Demelash and Embaya in front. Demelash to win….I think
Yigrem Demelash now pushing forcing a gap, Tamirat Tola trying to close together with Abadi Embaye
Entering last lap with 25.49
26:51.14 for Yigrem Demelash
In terms of crowd, it appears that there was almost no one on hand to watch:
En op dit moment lopen de mannen in een treintje. Ook in het fbk stadion voor hun limieten #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/JKJINcp9PP
— Huub van Langen (@looppatroon) June 29, 2016