Posted: June 13, 2004

Athletics: After WR, Abeylegesse’s Bold Prediction: “100 Percent Gold”

From David Monti

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

By Bob Ramsak

When Elvan Abeylegesse shattered the world record in the 5000 meters last Friday in Bergen, Norway, immediate comparisons with recent double world record setter Kenenisa Bekele filled the cool night air. But the petite Ethiopian-born Turk would have nothing of it.

“I am not the same,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. “I am Elvan.”

Yet their roads into the record books had a remarkably similar beginning. As promising young runners, the two were teammates on the Ethiopian junior squad at the 1999 World Cross Country Championships. Abeyleggesse, competing as Hewan Abeye, finished ninth, as did the then-unknown Bekele. While both would become the fastest ever by the age of 21, their career paths took dramatically different turns after their late March races in Belfast.

While Bekele would soon become Haile Gebrselassie’s protégé, Abeylegesse made the dramatic decision to uproot herself from her native Addis Ababa and move to Turkey. While her move was “a very difficult decision” for the then-17-year-old, it was in her view, the only means to achieve her ambitions to “break world records and become Olympic champion.”

“I couldn’t get enough support from Ethiopia,” she said, “so I came to Turkey. My club [Enka] in Turkey gave me a lot of support, so that’s why I thought coming to Turkey would help me achieve my goals.”

She achieved her first goal after her stunning 14:24.68 run at the Evergood Bislett Games, eclipsing Jiang Bo’s 1997 mark by more than four seconds. Running solo for more than half the race – “the pace maker got tired very fast,” she said—Abeylegesse was more than ten seconds ahead of record pace with a kilometer remaining. While straining visibly in the final 1000 meters, she managed a 66.6 final lap to set the world record she had been predicting in recent weeks.

Abeylegesse arrived in Bergen in astoundingly strong condition, leading the world at both the 1500 (PB 3:58.38) and the 3000 (8:35.83), both primarily solo efforts, yet her world record still came as a surprise to many. But her rise has been a consistent and quiet one since her move to Turkey during the summer of 1999.

She won the European Junior cross country title in 2000, the following year took the 3000/5000 double at the European Junior Championships, and by 2002, became a regular fixture on the European circuit. Mid-pack finishes in several races, including a fifth place showing in Zurich’s Weltklasse and a still-PB 8:31.94 in the 3000 meters in Brussels, earned her a ticket the season-ending Grand Prix Final, where she finished eighth in the 3000 meters. She finished third at the European Cross Country Championships later that fall, just three seconds behind winner Helena Javornik. There, her fiercest opponent was the 70 kilometer per hour winds that pounded her tiny 91-pound frame.

She opened 2003 with a win at the FBK Games in Hengelo, clocking 15:06.75, won the European Under-23 Championship, and improved to 14:53.56 at the World Championships, finishing fifth. But her first major win on the track came at the World Athletics Final in Monaco two weeks later where she outkicked world champion Tirunesh Dibaba, Derartu Tulu, and Werknesh Kidane, among others.

"There were some tough competitors today,” she told RRW in Monaco. “To run like this with them is very good for me. After the world championships," she added, "my coach gave me some tactics. If I had used them in Paris, maybe I would have been world champion."

Showing that her win in Monaco was no fluke, Abeylegesse pushed Paula Radcliffe to the finish at last December’s European Cross Country Championships where she finished nine seconds behind the Briton. Following her cross country season, she trained briefly in Ethiopia last winter, until, by her account, she had overstayed her welcome.

“After a while, the Ethiopian federation wouldn’t allow me to train there any longer,” she said, so she returned to Turkey, spending the remaining winter months training at high altitude, oftentimes trudging through snow.

In Istanbul, she is trained by Enka’s club coach Ertan Hatipoglu, a former triple jumper and primarily a sprint coach, who likens his star pupil to a favorite sports car.

“She’s like a wonderful car,” Hatipoglu explained. “She has good tires, she’s very aerodynamic, has a great engine, and most importantly, good torque and horsepower.”

Abeylegesse will begin university studies at a sports academy in Turkey in the fall, but in the meantime, her attention is firmly set on Athens. While largely untested in the 1500, her manager Jos Hermens indicated that she may contest both events at the Olympic Games. She wouldn’t comment on the shorter race, but eagerly shared her prediction for the outcome of the 5000 in Athens.

Without hesitation, she said, “100 percent Olympic gold medal.”