Posted: March 1, 2004

Athletics: Bekele Ready For Third Double Victory At World Cross

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

But Will He Get the Chance?
By Elshadai Negash

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- With less than three weeks before the start of the 32nd IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Brussels, the reigning double-double champion Kenenisa Bekele says he is ready to enter into the history and win a third double title.

In an exclusive interview he gave to Race Results Weekly from his training base in here last week, the 21-year old said that he is ready to run another double in Brussels, although the final decision will be left for the Federation and his coaches. "It all depends on the decision to be made by the Federation [Ethiopian Athletics Federation]," he said. "I have no say in this situation, and even if I tell you now that I will run both races, it might not happen. But if the Federation gives the go-ahead, I am ready to run and win the races in Brussels."

At last year's IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Avenches, Switzerland, Bekele won the 4 km race on the first day by four seconds over John Kibowen of Kenya, then came back on the second day to trounce the field in the 12-K by 13 seconds, an enormous margin in such a high level competition. It was much the same story in Dublin in 2002 where he won the short race in the first day by seven seconds, then won the longer race by six seconds on the second day.

And despite feeling pressure of a possible third-double, Bekele remains confident of winning both races in Belgian capital. "I believe that it will not be anything different from the previous years. I ran against my competitors last year and we met many times in competition during the last twelve months. There will be stiff competition, but I can hardly say that there will be a different outcome."

As any athlete this year, Bekele's major aim will be winning gold at the 28th Olympic Games in Athens, a desire which he cannot but stop emphasizing. "The Olympics come around only once in four years and I know well that if I miss this opportunity, I might not even take part in the next Games and so, I will work very hard for that this year," he underlined. "World record attempts can come anytime in your career, but you miss the Olympics, then there might not be another chance."

To win Olympic gold, however, Bekele will need to get past some world class runners including his compatriot and idol Haile Gebrselassie. But according to Bekele, there will be no repeat of their epic showdown at the World Championships in Paris last year before the penultimate clash takes place in Athens. "As far as I know, we will not be running against each other before the Olympics," he stated. "We might be running in the same venue, but not in the same distance."

However, Bekele also said that he might be going for one audacious world record attempt in the 10,000m. "I might be running one race to get a very good time to get the qualification time for the Olympics, possibly for the 10,000m, and if possible, I might go for one track record."

With a new world record in the indoor 5000m already under his belt, Bekele will look to Brussels as another step in the success ladder, but when asked whether he felt an air of impregnability, he said, " I was amazed myself by the way I ran in Birmingham. I never thought that after running three cross country races this season, I would be able to handle indoor running and was very delighted with the outcome," he said. "I know that I still need to work very hard in the coming months to correct my mistakes and become a better athlete."

The thought of how "better" he might get is a terrifying idea for his opponents who saw what he could do last year after he easily won the double in Lausanne despite having been on medication for typhoid during the championships. And even a scarier quote for his rivals is: "I am 100% healthy. I have no health problems and ready for the challenge."

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