Posted: February 3, 2006

Athletics: On First Trip To Big City, Bekele Hopes For Fast Tour

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

NEW YORK (02-Feb) -- Reigning Olympic 10,000m champion and world record holder, Kenenisa Bekele, started his day like many other visitors to the Big Apple: he took a jog in Central Park. Accompanied by Ellen van Langen of Global Sports Communications, the Dutch management firm which represents him, Bekele was trying his best to stay on the grass on the side of the Park's paved East Drive. Going up a hill, the tiring van Langen enlisted the help of a cyclist to take over for her and guide Bekele to the reservoir running track, where he could run on the kind of soft surface his African feet crave.

"Very nice," he said upon reaching the 1.68 mile (2.71 km) track, an oasis of calm in the middle of America's largest city.

Unfortunately, the track Bekele will be running on tomorrow night in Madison Square Garden will not be nearly as serene, and instead of bright sunshine, he'll be running under harsh lights. Facing two Olympic medalists at 1500m, Bernard Lagat of Tucson, Ariz., and Rui Silva of Portugal, Bekele will be competing at a distance he's never run in the famed Wanamaker Mile.

"Of course, for me, this race is very short," said Bekele at a news conference today adding, "The race is very new for me."

But not for Lagat. The former Kenyan, who has won Olympic silver and bronze medals, has won the Wanamaker Mile three times and is the event record holder (3:52.87), a mark he set last year. He would seem to have the advantage over his Ethiopian rival who is moving down to his distance, except that the birth of his son, Miika, on Jan. 12 and related complications faced by his wife, Gladys, has caused his training and sleeping schedule to be disrupted.

"My baby boy, Miika Lagat, is doing really great," said Lagat, emphasizing that there are "no problems now." His wife was forced to spend an additional week in the hospital when she contracted an infection after giving birth by cesarean section.

"Right now, she is doing well," he said.

Neither Lagat nor Bekele have raced on the track so far this year, but Bekele has run one cross country race in Edinburgh, Scotland, which he won. Bekele was scheduled to race a 1500m in Karlsruhe, Germany, last Sunday, but he withdrew from the meet. He said today it was an Achilles tendon problem which sidelined him, although earlier reports from his management firm cited a calf injury.

Lagat, who has never raced Bekele over any distance, is taking his challenger very seriously. "I personally respect him," said Lagat, a comment which caused Bekele to smile. "I don't really think anything is impossible for Bekele. We've seen the speed he has. He has tremendous speed."

Indeed, when Bekele won his Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004, he closed his 27:05.10 Olympic record run with a unimaginable 53.02-second last lap. Few milers have that kind of closing speed.

But, on the 11 lap-to-the-mile track in the Garden, tactics will play a key role. It's very difficult to pass on the short straightaways, and Bekele will only be able to practice for a short time tomorrow afternoon when the track is finally erected after a Billy Joel concert tonight.

"It is different," said Lagat of the track. "We run too many laps. It seems we are running 5000 meters!"

But Lagat thinks Bekele's compact stature will be an advantage.

"For me and Bekele, we are short people," said Lagat, who got Bekele smile once again. "I think it is not going to be a problem for him."

Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest