Updated 26/03/2006

TARIKU Bekele (TAH-ree-koo BEH-keh-leh), Ethiopia (3000m/5000m/cross)

Born 21 Jan. 1987, near Bekoji (Derartu Tulu’s hometown) Arsi Province, Ethiopia.

Lives in Addis Ababa with older brother Kenenisa and younger sister.

Manager: Federico Rosa.  Coach: Tolosa Kotu.  Club: Mugher Cement.

Third of six children. Younger brother of Kenenisa Bekele, Olympic and world 10,000m champion and double World Cross Country champion. Parents, retired farmers, live in Bekoji.

Finished twelfth year of school in 2005.

Much like his older brother Kenenisa, Tariku grew up helping the family raise the staple crops teff, wheat, and barley. He started running in primary school in his hometown of Bekoji in 1999. He enrolled in an Ethiopian youth development project in 2002, training half a day with his project mates and spent the other half with Kenenisa. By the end of the year, he was talked of as Ethiopia’s next hope for the future, having won a well-known talent-spotting cross country race in Addis Ababa.

He narrowly missed qualifying for the 2003 World Cross, finishing 9th in Ethiopia’s trials. But on the track, Tariku comfortably beat his contemporaries in the Ethiopian youth development project championships and thus booked a place in the Ethiopian squad for the World Youth Championships in Canada, where he took silver in the 3000m behind Kenya’s Augustine Choge.

He started 2004 with an unfortunate 7th in the junior race at the East African Cross Country Championships in Addis Ababa, the qualifying meet for the World Cross in Brussels. He thus missed selection by one place. The following May, he made his senior track debut at the Ethiopian championships, finishing 4th in a highly competitive 5000m that saw brother Kenenisa set an Addis Ababa stadium record. Tariku’s performance earned him selection to the Ethiopian squad for the World Junior Championships in Italy, where he won bronze at 5000m (13:30.86), once again behind Choge, as well as an Ethiopian teammate, Worku Bado. After the World Juniors, he raced over 5000m in four European GPs, recording an impressive 13:11.97 PB for 7th in the Zurich GL and notching his first overseas win in Rovereto, Italy (13:15.86).

After the 2004 track season, Tariku joined a select group of runners under his brother’s coach, Tolosa Kotu, and the move quickly paid dividends in Tariku’s performances on the European cross country circuit. In November in Portugal he beat Kenya’s World Marathon record holder Paul Tergat and a week later in Spain lost by barely a second to double World Cross silver medalist Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam. In January 2005 in Spain, he bested 2004 World Cross bronze medallist Maeregu Zewde in Elgoibar and then lost by a second to European Champ Sergey Lebed in San Sebastian.

Tariku suffered a minor leg injury in San Sebastian that troubled him when he paced Kenenisa’s two mile indoor race in Birmingham in February, one week before the Ethiopian cross country trials. In Ethiopia, some suggested Tariku had outgrown junior competition, but he ran in the junior race in the World Cross trials and looked tired coming home 6th. At the World Championships in France, the injury continued to give him trouble. A strong Kenyan junior team led by Augustine Choge took the first five places and Tariku, who was the top Ethiopian in 6th, left the field limping.

On the track, Tariku ran 13:14.15 to finish behind Choge and ahead of Kenya’s eventual world 10,000m bronze medallist Mosos Mosop over 5000m in Hengelo. Running behind Kenenisa, Tariku ran impressive personal bests in July, breaking 13 minutes for 5000m at the Paris GL (12:59.03), and placing 2nd in 7:38.18 over 3000m in Lausanne. In a slow and tactical World Championships 5000m, Tariku was 7th.

At the Brussels GL, Tariku paced Kenenisa to a phenomenal 26:17.53 world 10,000m record, taking him through the halfway point in 13:09.19. Tariku placed 5th at the World Athletic Final 3000m (7:40.30) and later the same month, he followed Kenenisa to a 7:36.63 personal best ahead of Kenya’s Boniface Songok in Shanghai. In November, Tariku contributed a strong leg in the 2nd placed Ethiopian Chiba ekiden team, and switched to cross country, finishing 2nd in Oeiras, Portugal, and employing a decisive last-kilometre kick in Llodio, Spain to defeat Uganda’s world junior 10,000m champion Boniface Kiprop (over 9.2K). Tariku was tied for 12th place in the IAAF World Rankings distance track/cross country category for 2005.

After merely pacing his brother’s indoor efforts in 2005, Tariku ran for himself in 2006, finishing his first indoor race over two miles in Boston. In a field of senior Ethiopians like Gebregziabher Gebremariam, Abebe Dinkessa and Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Sileshi Sihine, as well as Australia’s World 5000m bronze medallist Craig Mottram and Ireland’s Alistair Cragg, Tariku frequently took the lead, and was surprised to place 4th (8:37.56) behind Mottram, Sileshi and Cragg. “I could have done better, but I figured there are better runners than me,” he said. In his next race, in Birmingham, Tariku placed 2nd in 8:13.32 behind Kenenisa’s near-world record 8:05.12. He then joined Kenenisa on Ethiopia’s 3000m team for the World Indoor Championships. Kenenisa won the much anticipated contest with his long-time Kenya rival Eliud Kipchoge and the ex-Kenyan Qatari Saif Saeed Shaheen. Tariku was 6th in 7:47.11.

At Ethiopia’s February World Cross trials, when Tariku’s focus was on Moscow, he took 2nd in the junior race, upset by his Mugher Club teammate, the 2005 World Youth 3000m silver medalist Ibrahim Jellan Gashu. But Tariku’s focus has since turned to Fukuoka and he is aiming for gold.

Personals bests: 3000m 7:36.63 (2005); 2 miles 8:13.32i (2006); 5000m 12:59.03 (2005).

A note on Ethiopian names: Ethiopians are customarily referred to by first name or first and second name together, the second name being the father’s first name.

Prepared by Sabrina Yohannes, Elshadai Negash and John Manners for the IAAF. © 2005-2006 IAAF.