Posted: March 19, 2004

Athletics: For Bekele To Double Is Natural

From David Monti

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

BRUSSELS (19-Mar) -- Double-double world cross country champion Kenenisa Bekele left no doubt today on whether or not he would double in this year's IAAF World Cross Country Championships which begin here in the Belgian and European capitol tomorrow.

"I run both races," he said at a news conference this afternoon. "For my part it is automatic that I would run both."

Bekele romped to victory last year by three seconds in the 4 km race on the first day of the championships, then snapped back the second day to take the 12 km race by a whopping 13 seconds. He seems very ready to repeat his double victory from last year.

"I have tested myself and I can run both," he said matter of factly, as if asked if he could walk and chew gum at the same time. "And I have not raced that much (this year)."

Bekele, the reigning world 10,000m champion, showed excellent early season fitness this year, running 7:30.77 over 3000m in Stuttgart on 31-Jan, and then a 5000m indoor world record of 12:49.60 at Birmingham on 20-Feb. Although he plans to double here, he has no plans to do the 5000m/10,000m double at the Athens Olympics in August.

"I think it is too early to say about the 5000/10,000 in Athens," he said. "But I don't think I will run both... I don't think I'll have the strength to run both."

There is tremendous pressure on the Kenyans to contain Bekele and try to retain the team title in the 12 km which they have won 18 years in a row. The Kenyans scored a scant 17 points last year (2-4-5-6) to the Ethiopians 23 (1-3-7-13). For Bekele the team title would also be sweet.

"Every time we train we train with the team," said Bekele. "I think this year we try (to win). This year we have a good team."

Kenyans Richard Limo and Eliud Kipchoge have no intentions of giving up the team title. After all, no Kenyan athlete would want to be on the team that lost the streak. When asked about that possibility he shook his head "no" and just smiled.

Tomorrow's competition begins with the junior women's race at 12:40 p.m., followed by the men's 4 km race at 1:30 p.m., and concluding with the women's 8 km race at 2:10 p.m. Individual winners in the senior races will earn US$30,000, while the top teams will be paid $20,000.

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