Duncan Mackay for IAAF
4 April 2001 - If Derartu Tulu’s rivals thought her appetite for 10,000 metres had been satisfied by two Olympic gold medals at the distance then they are in for a big disappointment.
The Ethiopian is currently deep in training for the London Marathon on April 22 but, after she has finished that event, plans to return to preparing for the 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships in Edmonton in August.
"I have never won a gold medal in the World Championships and I think this is my big chance," said the 29-year-old Tulu, whose best performance was finishing second at the 1995 edition in Gothenburg. "I don’t want to run the marathon in championships, especially Athens (for the 2004 Olympics), because it will be too hot."
Tulu has reserved her best championship performances in the 10,000m for the Olympics. In 1992, following a famously symbolic race with the white South African Elana Meyer, she became the first black African woman to win a gold medal. She returned, after an eight-year absence from the top of the podium, in Sydney last September to beat her team-mate Gete Wami with a withering last lap sprint.
When Tulu got home from Australia she joined Million Wolde, Haile Gebrselassie and Gezahegne Abera, Ethiopia’s other gold medallists, in a parade of champions from the airport. "We each had our own car and there were so many people out to greet us that it took four hours to get back to the city centre," said Tulu.
But the biggest accolade, as far as Tulu is concerned, is that a school currently under construction in Addis Ababa is to be named after her. One day she hopes her three-year-old daughter Tsion will attend the school named in honour of her mother. "That would be nice," she said.
Meanwhile, all her energies are being focussed on the London Marathon, where she hopes to run faster than last year when she finished sixth in 2hr 26min 09sec. "I would like to be as good at the marathon as I am the 10,000m," Tulu said.
The signs are promising. Boosted by a series of training runs of up to 2hr 30min, Tulu finished third in the Lisbon half-marathon on Sunday in 67min 03sec, more than a minute quicker than in the corresponding event last year.
Like Paul Tergat, Tulu decided to concentrate on the London Marathon this year at the expense of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Ostend, though in her case it was partly due to the fact she has been suffering from knee and Achilles injuries since Sydney.
Tulu, winner of the World Cross Country title in 1995, 1997 and 2000, was cheering for team-mate Wami but was glad to see Paula Radcliffe triumph in the long race. The Briton was the runner who led for 24 of the 25 laps of the Olympic 10,000m only to finish out of the medals. "I was happy for Paula," said Tulu. "She is always No 2, No 2. So I was glad."
It is unlikely Radcliffe will respond in a similar fashion when she hears of Tulu’s Edmonton plans.
