ON ATHLETICS:Few athletes can be as relaxed and selective about their Olympic preparations as the great Ethiopian champion, writes IAN O'RIORDAN
FIVE MONTHS, three weeks, four days and 10 hours to go – at least according to my watch – and as a statement of intent it’s hard to imagine anything as lame and unconvincing.
Just who exactly does Kenensisa Bekele think he’s fooling? Not us. Well, not really, although if he’s not careful the only person he’ll be fooling come the London Olympics is himself.
Some of you may have been distracted by Fionnuala Britton’s runaway victory in the women’s race, because Bekele was also present for the Great Edinburgh Cross Country last Saturday, although only in name, certainly not spirit. Missing was the once invincible champion of distance running, the man with 20 gold medals between track and cross country – including an Olympic 5,000-10,000 metres double in Beijing four years ago, plus the 10,000m gold from 2004.
Bekele, now 29, still holds the world record at both distances, ran the fastest 10,000m of 2011. Yet he was obviously a rounder, slower shadow of himself in Edinburgh, finishing a distant 11th in the men’s 3km race – 22 seconds behind Kenya’s winner Asbel Kiprop. Those that finished ahead of him included 19-year-old Jonny Hay from Aldershot Farnham AC.
It was by Bekele’s standards a quiet hammering. It was the latest example of Kenyans hammering the Ethiopians. Only recently it seemed the Ethiopians had taken over as the kings of distance, but Kenya won practically everything in 2011, and so far it seems Olympic year will be no different.
The small Ethiopian seemed unperturbed: “It’s a long time until the Olympics,” said Bekele with a sheepish grin, “and it is too early to be in better shape. Generally I am happy, that I am healthy, have no injuries, and I remain optimistic. I think in the summer we will see the real Kenenisa Bekele again.”
Perhaps there is nothing more to Bekele’s lack of form than his apparent lack on interest? But few athletes can be as selective with their form, turn it on and off like a tap, especially in Olympic year.
Some even need to be peaking right now, just to qualify. The best American marathon runners will line up today in Houston, Texas, and unless they make the top three (with the necessary qualifying time) they can forget about London. Bekele thinks it’s too early to be in shape, but if any of these Americans are flippant about their form then it’s already too late.
Bekele may not have to worry about qualifying for London, and yet the last time he finished outside the top 10 of any race was in 2001, over 5,000m in Oslo, when he was still a junior.
He has dropped out a couple of times since, including the World Championship 10,000m in Daegu last August, his first “defeat” at the distance. Then two weeks later he ran 26:43.16 in Brussels, the fastest time of the year, to remind everyone what he’s still capable of – and effectively ensure his selection for London. No man has ever won three Olympic 10,000m titles in succession, and perhaps it’s still too soon to tell whether Bekele still has time on his side.
Some in Ethiopia believe London will be different, that he has ample time to rediscover his form. In November I quizzed a few of the locals in Addis Ababa, about Bekele, and some of their other Olympic hopefuls, before taking on that brilliantly chaotic African running event known as the Great Ethiopian Run.
For two years now Concern has been fielding a team of Irish runners to help raise funds for their array of projects in Ethiopia, and the race itself is only a small part of the experience. Most of the 36,000 runners that started the 10km in Meskel Square that Sunday morning weren’t actually a reflection of Ethiopia’s athletic talent, but rather the burgeoning middle class, well educated and well aware of the need to give something back to their country through the event’s many charitable causes.
Any Olympic hopefuls for London were out much earlier that morning, running up the Entoto Hills that promptly rise to a blood-thinning 10,000 feet. We went up the day before – by bus – and visited Maryam Church, where Menelik II was crowned Emperor, in 1865, and later founded his new capital city, Addis Ababa, or “New Flower”. Inside Maryam were several prized objects, including, in a simple glass casing, the Olympic marathon gold medal from Sydney 2000, won by Gezahgne Abera.
The Kidame Mirete Church nearby houses the Olympic gold medal that Haile Gebrselassie won over 5,000m in Atlanta, in 1996. That most Ethiopian athletes gift their Olympic medals in such a way is evidence that nothing speaks of success and achievement in Ethiopia more than an Olympic medal.
They won seven Olympic medals in Beijing – including Tirunesh Dibaba’s women’s distance double, to match Bekele. Yet they won only one gold medal in Daegu, when Ibrahim Jeilan won the 10,000m – at least partly because Britain’s Mo Farah began his finishing sprint too soon.
After years of training inside the old Olympic Stadium in Addis Ababa, where the track is as hard as concrete, Bekele has decided to build a softer one of his own, in Sululta, 10km outside the city. It will be finished next month and presumably Bekele will waste no time putting it to the test.
Because even with five months, three weeks, four days and 10 hours to go, every second counts – and at least most of our London qualifiers see it that way. They are in different locations around the world to maximise every moment, or rather the warmer weather, or thinner air. Derval O’Rourke is hurdling in Fuerteventura, Paul Hession sprinting in Stellenbosch, Rob Heffernan race walking in Melbourne, and Ciarán Ó Lionáird running the high altitudes of Albuquerque.
At least there is a little more time to prepare for the 2012 Great Ethiopian Run – and Concern is wide open to qualifiers. See www.concernchallenge.org and indeed that could turn out to be an Olympic homecoming of sorts.
