Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar celebrates winning the 3000m steeplechase (© Getty Images)
Saif Saaeed Shaheen or Stephen Cherono, what name do I have to use? The answer came immediately, “In Kenya I am Stephen Cherono.” A lot has changed in the life of the 21 years-old Kenyan born Qatari in the last six months, but one thing remains, he still has a lot of dreams, probably more than ever.
The first one this year is that he wants to give Kenenisa Bekele a hard time when it comes to the short course race at the World Championships in Brussels.
Jürg Wirz recently interviewed Saif Saaeed Shaheen for the IAAF internet -
In the next two months we will see you in some cross-country races: First the 12 km at the Kenyan national championships in Nairobi and then the short cross at the World Cross Country in Brussels. Why did you decide to go for cross-country and not for indoors?
“I would have preferred to run the World Indoors but the federation told me to run the cross-country. They want to enter a strong team, it will be a good one. At the World indoors I would have been the only athlete from Qatar.”
You don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to cross-country?
“In 1999 I ran three races in Europe, but not the big ones. I found it a little bit hard. Some courses are very muddy and hilly, sometimes it is very cold. I like it more when the ground is dry and fast. I am too skinny and I don’t have a lot of muscles for coping with the muddy courses. I get stuck in the mud. But if it is dry in Brussels – who knows....”
”Of course Kenenisa Bekele is a very good athlete. He is the best, you know. I admire the way he runs. I will try to give him at least a hard time. It might not be as easy for him as last year.”
Let’s talk about the track season. What will be the priorities?
“I might start the season in Doha with a 3000m. Then in Ostrava I try to run the Steeple below 7:57. The main problem these days: there are no good pacemakers. In the year 2002 Kapkory still did a very good job, but now he is old. One thing is for sure: I will definitely have a steeple in Zurich. Zurich is the best place, the best meeting in the World.”
”I think I will run a maximum of three Steeplechase races, the rest will be 5000m. The reasons for this is that on the one hand I like the 5000m very much and on the other the Steeple always holds a risk of an injury.“
Your most surprising race last year was undoubtedly in Ostrava when you beat the great Hicham El Guerrouj at 5000m in 12:48,81, the World’s leading time of the year?
“When I went to Ostrava my goal was to run 12:50. Before the race I told some of my (then) Kenyan teammates about my target, and you know what they answered? They said I should first concentrate on running below 13 minutes before I start thinking about 12:50.”
”I could have run even faster but I favoured to stay behind El Guerrouj. I knew he is normally kicking with about 600 metres to go but in the last 200 metres he hardly keeps the high pace going. So I followed him and attacked when my time came.”
”You know I look very much at other runners because I always want to learn and to improve. I watch a lot of tapes and study the weaknesses or the preferred tactics of the others.”
You are now a Qatari but you still live and train in Kenya. How do you cope with the new situation?
“Good, now I feel good. But it was not always like that. At the end of last year when I came back to Kenya after a long season and after a fine reception at the Sheik’s palace in Doha it was hell. Everybody wanted to talk to me, everybody wanted something – especially money. For two months I was hiding, almost every day I left my house at Eldoret very early in the morning and came back late in the evening. It didn’t feel safe anymore. I could have ended up getting killed. In Kenya people sometimes kill even for five dollars.”
”Now the situation has completely changed since the newspapers started talking about the athletics stadium the Qatari government is going to build in Kenya. Of course I feel good about the fact that public opinion has switched. I feel happy when I see that something good is coming out of my defection. But it doesn’t change the reality that every three months I have to leave the country – which is still the best place to train – and get a new visa for another three months....”
