Posted: March 19, 2005

Athletics: With Heart Still Heavy, Bekele To Defend Cross Country Titles

From David Monti

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

ST. ETIENNE, France (18-Mar) -- At the last three editions of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, the achievements of one athlete have overshadowed those of all others: Kenenisa Bekele's complete domination of the senior men's races. Bekele has taken what many call "the world's toughest footrace" and turned it into child's play, romping to victories at both the 4 km and 12 km distances, and accumulating a 52 second winning margin over those six races. He's margin in the 12-K event has averaged a whopping 12 seconds, and he has won at the shorter distance by an average of four seconds.

Bekele used those performances on the turf to catapult him to even greater accomplishments on the track, including surpassing world records set by his legendary countryman, Haile Gebrselassie, and winning two medals at last summer's Olympic Games. At the end of last year, Bekele was riding high.

But the death of his teenage fiancée, Alem Teshale, at the beginning of January has profoundly affected Bekele's emotional state, and by all accounts, his training. Where he would normally have had accumulated three solid months of training prior to these championships, he has only done several weeks, according to his manager, Jos Hermens. And, as he faced the press today, he still looked like a man in mourning.

"As you all know, this thing has happened," said Bekele at a news conference adding, "the only thing you can do is accept such things."

Although Bekele did return to competion fairly quickly after the tragedy, his form has been off. He bypassed the View From Great Edinburgh Cross Country as it took place only 11 days after Teshale's death, but was on the track at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on 29-Jan for the 3000m. He was beaten by an in-form Alistair Cragg, mostly due to the fact that he miscounted the laps of the race and bolted down the backstraight with 300m to go, slowing as he crossed the finish line and believing he had won the race. Later, in Birmingham at the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix, Bekele was again defeated, this time by countryman Markos Geneti in the finishing sprint of a two mile.

While some in Ethiopia said that Bekele should have stayed home to observe a longer period of mourning, the Olympic gold medalist defended his decision to get back to the action, sooner.

"I had discussed this with my family, and they say I must continue my work," he said through a translator. "I have tried to combine my training with this problem. Sometimes when you are training, you have to push yourself."

Normally pushing against physical limits is the challenge, but now the emotional has become an even bigger factor. Hee scoffed at a reporter's question that he had supposedly gained 3 kg (about 7 pounds), and stressed that he was here to do a job.

"I have to compete for my country and compete for my people, and I will try to do my best," he said earnestly. "Being here is not only winining for our team. It will give a lot of strengh for my teammates. If you are here, you work togther for the team."

Bekele is scheduled to compete in both the tomorrow's 4-K and Sunday's 12-K. Since the second race will be on live television on Eurosport, there is probably added pressure for him to compete in both races. However, the double itself seems so passé for Bekele.

"I know these races," he said matter of factly. "I have won three times, double."

Regarding his fitness, he did not say he was beatable (Eliud Kipchoge sat right next to him), but he did allow that he wasn't in top form.

"Even though the trainig was not the same as last year, but I had good training with the team. This year, I was training at the same level with the team. In this race, also, I will be be a good competitor to the last moment."