News12 Sep 2007


Bekele 'hungry', as Brussels closes in on fifth World 10,000m record – IAAF Golden League

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Bekele on way to World 10,000m record in Brussels (© Getty Images)

Over the course of athletics history four World records in the men’s 10,000m have been established at various venues in the Belgian capital, and it looks more than probable that a fifth clocking will join that list on Friday (14) when the Memorial Van Damme - IAAF Golden League - meeting takes place in the city’s King Baudouin Stadium.

Kenenisa Bekele, the Olympic gold medallist and three-time World champion at the 10,000m, who only turned 25-years-old in June, is looking to improve his own World record of 26:17.53 which he established at the Memorial Van Damme in 2005.

“Super compensation” for hard training expected

“After making up for my Mombasa disappointment (DNF World Cross Country Champs) with my third World 10,000m victory last month in Osaka, I am hungry for more success,” said Kenenisa Bekele. “I am fit and ready to take up the challenge whatever pace is set on Friday.”

“We are celebrating our (Ethiopian calendar) Millennium at home and the improvement of my 10,000m time would be the perfect way to mark the occasion.”

Bekele’s management was equally upbeat. “I am expecting some super compensation from all Kenenisa’s heavy training input in August, “confirmed Jos Hermens. “Mombasa took a lot out of him, and that meant he had a very late start to his training and competition season which began in Hengelo.”

“Kenenisa put in so much work to catch-up after his rest following Mombasa that in my opinion he came to Osaka over-trained, and we could see how tired he was in the latter part of the race there in Japan.”

“I am expecting that after fully recovering from the tiredness and the high of Osaka that there are still more highlights to come from his season. This is an athlete coming into his peak form relatively late in the year, and I hope we will see the result of his great preparation on Friday,” concluded Hermens.

Historic venue - pure brilliance in 2005

On 26 August 2005, Bekele, who was already the holder of the World record (26:20.31, Ostrava, Czech Republic, 8 June 2004) pulverized his previous best slicing nearly three seconds off his old mark in front of a capacity crowd of 47,000 in the Stade Roi Baudouin.

Bekele’s 10,000 run in a chilly temperature of 12C was pure brilliance. Ahead of World record pace by 5 seconds at the midway point (5000m - 13:09.19) when following his pace-making brother Tariku, Kenenisa Bekele kept that advantage when running alone through 6000m (15:44.66), and while his advantage slipped to 4 seconds though the 7k and 8k (18:23.98 and 21:04.63), and to 3.5 by the 9th (23:45.09), his perseverance paid off as he pursued his goal without weakening in a blistering last few laps to close out in a World record of 26:17.53.

The Ethiopian, who is also the World 5000m record holder, produced a last 400m in Brussels of 57 seconds, and his last 1500m was clocked unofficially as 3:52, which matches Paavo Nurmi’s World record time (3:52.6) for that distance in 1924!

Brussels is a particularly historic venue for 10,000m running, with Bekele’s record race in 2005 following on from such illustrious names as Emil Zatopek (1954), Salah Hissou (1996) and Paul Tergat (1997) who each created 10,000m running history in the city.

Chris Turner
IAAF Editorial Manager

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