Kenenisa Bekele takes a short turn at the front in the Hengelo 10,000m (© Detlef Moritz Abebe)
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele has a more than impressive approach to gaining experience of running on tight 200m indoor tracks. The 21 year-old is confident that only his second ever competitive outing on an indoor track could well lead to the World indoor 5000m record being broken this evening at the Norwich Union Grand Prix.
“Under 13 minutes is of course a good time but indoors it is much harder, a very very good time,” confirmed Bekele. “When I went to Stuttgart for my first indoor race (31 Jan 2004), I realised that the feeling you get from an indoor track is totally different to running outdoors. The slight bank and tight bends, at the moment it doesn’t feel as natural, even the air is a problem as it’s not so fresh.”
”The indoor season is only about practice for me, a testing stage in my career. I have not trained especially for indoors or tried to develop any new tactics, I am just happy to see what happens. If I run fast, I run fast, but if I don’t, I don’t! This winter is just about gaining experience.”
It is an honest and realistic statement for any indoor rookie to make but given that Bekele ran 7:30.77 for 3000m in his indoor debut in Stuttgart, it is also a remark which will send despair into the hearts of the Ethiopian’s rivals.
It is clear that while the World 10,000m champion will make no promises about a time tonight, the target he has set himself for his second ‘practice’ run is at such a high level that, just by coincidence both the 13 minute barrier and possibly even the World record could fall.
To put these potential feats into some sort of perspective, only two athletes have ever managed to break 13 minutes for the indoor 5000m, Kenya’s Daniel Komen (12:51.48, 1998), and Bekele’s Ethiopian mentor Haile Gebrselassie (12:59.04, 1997 & 12:50.38, 1999) the current World record holder for the distance.
Gebrselassie set the current World mark at this meeting in 1999, and Bekele is prepared to concede that, “yes, if I try hard enough I can break the record tonight.”
With a 3000m pace of around 7:40'ish called for and the assistance of pace makers led by Martin Keino, Bekele says he is intent on “just running tonight and to take direction from how my body feels.”
IAAF
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