Kenenisa Bekele in Brussels (© Jean-Pierre Durand)
For a man who has not finished a track race in more than two years, Kenenisa Bekele sounded remarkably confident about his targets when talking to the media ahead of the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme – Samsung Diamond League meeting on Friday (16).
“I'm looking for a time around 26:35 or 26:40,” said Bekele, who will compete in the 10,000m on the same track where he set the current World record of 26:17.53 six years ago.
Back in the reckoning
The 10,000m is not a Diamond Race event - although there are the finals her on Friday of 16 events which are – but the Belgian capital is almost a synonymous with races over 25 laps of the track as it is with chocolate and beer, with eight of the top 10 athletes in the event having run their best times in Stade Roi Baudouin / Koning Boudewijnstadion.
Consequently, as well as being a firm favourite with Belgian athletics fans, there is no better stage for recuperating Bekele, one of the few athletes who can rightly have the epithet living legend applied to their name, to show the world that he is still a force to be reckoned.
“It'll be a tough race here so I don't want to say I'm going to win but I want to do my very best and we'll see what that brings. I just want to run a fast time, that would make me happy,” commented Bekele.
He also knows he has a further point to prove after failing to finish over 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships just a few weeks ago, when he was trying to defend the title he had won on the three previous occasions, diving in at the deep end after not racing since he finished fourth at a cross country race in Britain at the very start of 2010.
Bekele, who is also the 5000m and 10,000m World record holder, ruptured a muscle in his right calf in February last year and had been on the side-lines until his surprise appearance in Daegu.
“I've now been training very well since Daegu and I don't regret going there, I don't count it a as a defeat because I didn't finish the race; I still feel I have a 100% record at 10,000m. I know that I went there without a lot of good training behind me but I went because sometimes surprises can happen.”
“It wasn't to be this time, I could only stay with the leaders for 5000m but I wanted to defend my title and show everyone I was still running.”
Bekele was also the defending champion over 5000m prior to Daegu but, after having 'dnf' next to his name over the longer distance, instead of trying his luck again and standing on the start line, he decided that discretion was the better part of valour and he watched the race from in front of a television set.
“It was hard for me to watch that race and not be involved but I was surprised at how strong Mo Farah was after finishing second 10,000m. He's improved a lot this year,” added Bekele, paying tribute to the man who this year has partially filled the vacuum left by his absence of the 29-year-old Ethiopian.
Future uncertain
Bekele has adopted the mantra of many people in difficult situations and is just taking one day at a time with regard to his ambitions.
Obviously, defending the 5000m and 10,000m titles he won at the 2008 Olympic Games figure in his thinking, but what he will do between Saturday and opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games London next summer is still very much up in the air.
“After the race (in Brussels) I will talk with my manager. I'll see how I feel. I don't have any plans for the future, maybe I will do some cross country,” he added.
With no IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2012, it could mean that the greatest cross country runner the world has ever seen could have a winter of relatively little pressure and get back his competitive juices on the surface he has often described as his favourite.
It's a return that he would relish but only if it's prudent.
“I had to be strong, and coming back from an injury like the one I had is very tough. It's not easy to get back to the same level again, as much mentally as well as physically.
“There was even one time when I thought I would never return. After about a year, I had been training for a month and then the injury came back. I was very sad. However, I talked to my wife and my physio and they encouraged me a lot,” reflected Bekele.
However, there would be no better way of being encouraged, and boosting his clearly fragile confidence, if he can hit his target and cross the line in a little more than 26-and-a-half minutes on Friday.
Phil Minshull for the Samsung Diamond League
