Adere and Wami - Veterans rekindle Ethiopian marathon hopes

Berhane Adere and Gete Wami, two Ethiopian distance running greats, aged 34 and 33 respectively, head towards 2007 in confident mood after becoming the first Ethiopian women to win major city marathons since Derartu Tulu’s victory in the 2001 London Marathon.

In Los Angeles in March, Wami returning from a disappointing two-year injury hiatus took second place in the marathon in 2:25:26. The following month Adere making her serious debut in London smashed Wami’s four-year old national marathon record (2:22:20) with a 2:21:52 time for fourth place. Then in the autumn, Wami bounced back to win the Berlin Marathon in September and so temporarily regained her Ethiopian record with 2:21:24, only for Adere to recapture it in Chicago with a clinically taken victory in 2:20.47.

The stories of both runners offer some striking similarities. Both are coached by their husbands and have used past disappointments as a driving force to excellent 2006 seasons.

Adere - Olympic reject proves her point

When Adere was controversially dropped from Ethiopia’s Athens Olympics squad in 2004, many thought it would be the end of the runner who had forged a dream of regaining the mantle of “queen of distance running” from compatriot Tulu.

“Before Athens, I dreamed every single day of standing on top of the medal podium hearing our (Ethiopian) national anthem,” she said. “I do not want to remember the circumstances of my elimination because it is painful. I am glad to be sitting and conducting this interview after an outstanding year.”

It took much more than a couple of victories to restore the Adere of old. “Without the help of my husband Hirpassa and other close friends like Haile Gebrselassie, I do not think I would reach this level.”

Adere endured a shaky 2005 where she came a close second behind Tirunesh Dibaba over the 10,000m at the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland. But it was in 2006 that she truly excelled.

“I had planned to run the full marathon for some time,” she said. “I also wanted to continue running on the track and chase fast times.”

The focal point of her season was the London Marathon, but not before she detoured to Stuttgart for a genuine crack at her own World indoor 3000m record.

“I am different from other athletes in that I can run all distances from the 3000m to the marathon very well,” she said. “Stuttgart was not bad. I consider it as a speed session for my marathon”

Adere finished some nineteen seconds behind race winner Meseret Defar, but she was not too disappointed. “I did not waste time getting angry about the defeat,” she says.

She ran 2:21.58 to smash Gete Wami’s Ethiopian record and finish fourth in London, but she believes that she exceeded her own expectations. “I did not expect to run that fast in London. I did not really care about the time in my first marathon. Anything under 2:25 was good enough for me. But 2:21 was unbelievable.”

“My Ethiopian record in Chicago was well planned,” she says. “My manager (Federico Rosa) and the Chicago organizers agreed in Berlin that I should attempt an Ethiopian record in Chicago. I was awarded a US$25,000 bonus for achieving that mark.”

Adere was told not to follow American Deena Kastor in the leading group so as not to get burned out by the scorching pace in London, but she now believes that other marathon runners should be afraid of her ability to finish well and finish fast. “I will not been in a trailing group from now on,” she says. “I have what it takes to run fast even if it means chasing the very best.”

Wami - National team elimination pushes her on the brink of success

While Adere was still celebrating her Ethiopian record in London, her compatriot Gete Wami was plotting her own mini-revival in Addis Ababa.

The 1999 World 10,000m champion had looked way past her best since running an Ethiopian record on her marathon debut in Amsterdam four years earlier. Although her Amsterdam mark was good enough for Olympic selection, she too was dropped from the national team.

“I was totally demoralized,” she says. “I do not even remember how I reacted at the time. It was utterly depressed.”

It took her considerable amount of time before she could recover from the experience. In one of her rare impressive outings in 2005, she won the Rock n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego, USA in 2:30.42, a result which was enough to earn her selection for Ethiopia’s team for the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland but was ultimately not included in the final squad.

She was seventh in 2:27.40 in the 2005 New York Marathon and after winning a series of road races to warm up for the Los Angeles Marathon in March of this year, she finished second behind Russian Lidiya Grigoryeva in 2:25.26.

But it was in Berlin that Wami really came to the fore. She took advantage of Mizuki Noguchi’s absence to run a personal best and an Ethiopian record time.

“I feel that I have some respect from the world of distance runners,” she says. “I am not surprised that I run an Ethiopian record.”
 
Adere and Wami - Next goals

In 2007, Adere hopes to again mix the short distances with the marathon. “I hope to run races over the 10km, 15km, and the half marathon before trying to run a fast marathon. I am thinking of running in London again, but nothing has been confirmed yet.”

However, the main focus of her 2007 season will be the World Championships in Osaka where she hopes to regain her World title over the 10,000m. “I feel that I still can run very well over the track,” she says. “I will give the others a big fight and I am sure I will not miss a medal at least.”

But Wami is solely focused on the roads despite the lure of the track and the cross country.

“The Ethiopian record is not the summit of all achievements,” she says. “I have higher and bigger ambitions. I want to compare myself with the world’s top runners and I cannot say I am there amongst the best yet.”

Her main focus in 2007 will be lowering her personal best once more and dip under 2:20. “I am going for a fast marathon in 2007,” she says. “I still have a lot to prove. I am not done yet.”

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF