After winning the 10.000m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene last Saturday, he will hunt for a 5000m qualifying time at the annual meeting given a global profile by his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie.
“I want both world titles back, that I won in Berlin in 2009,” said Bekele on Wednesday.
Bekele admitted that he is still suffering from the disappointing experience of only fourth in the London 2012 Olympic Games 10000m race. At the 2011 World Championships, he wasn’t even able to finish that race, although he bounced back that summer to run the fastest time in the world in 2011 at the end of the season in Brussels.
“Both last years were just a disaster,” he refected at a press conference in Nijmegen, where is staying with his manager Jos Hermens for a couple of days.
Tonight he will take watch the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rome on television to see hwo some of the other Ethiopeans over 5000m. When they are finished, Bekele knows what he will have to do in the FBK stadium on Saturday.
He won the 10.000m in Eugene in 27:12.08 but was dismissive about his performnace.
“It was just an average race. I’m not in a top-shape at the moment but I think I can deliver on Saturday,” commented Bekele.
“In
fact, I have had troubles since the Olympic Games in Beijing (where he
won both the 5000m and 10000m titles). In November 2008, I ran a 15k
race here in Nijmegen and, ever since, I have had to fight all kinds of
injuries.
“My body didn’t respond well to the
training programme. I didn’t have the speed and the strength that I had
before; but I think this season will be better.”Moscow could well be his last World Championships on the track. Bekele is now thinking about making his marathon debut next year. It’s not a final decission yet, but the 31-year-old is concerned time is running out.
“It will not be easy to run a 42k, nor to do the right things to prepare for it. But, just like Haile, I want the world record for the marathon.I don’t guarentee you that I will do it, but it’s not impossible.”
However, he doesn’t want to move over to just racing on the roads right now. “That wouldn’t make me happy after what happened last year. You shouldn’t leave the track because you lost.”
Bekele gave his warm support to the meeting organisers in Hengelo and asked the local authorities for their support.
The future of stadium that bears the name of the famous Dutch ‘flying housewife’ Fanny Blankers Koen, who was voted the Female Athlete of the Century by the IAAF in 1999, is in danger.
There are doubts about its future after a local football club said it planned to buy the stadium and remove the track.
“That would be a very sad decission. Nolt only because I run one of my world records here. I can do that everywhere; but the youth in Holland deserves a good stadium and a great meet, like the FBK Games. That gives them inspiration,” said Bekele.
His main rivals on Sunday will be the Kenyan pair of Augustine Choge and David Bett as well as Ethiopia’s Muktar Edris.
The Dutch audience will also have their own hero to cheer for, Churandy Martina, who will run the 200m in Hengelo.
The always-smiling sprinter became a very popular and entertaining star during the Olympic Games. The reigning European 200m champion will meet Jamaica’s Marvin Anderson and also some of his Dutch 4x100m Relay colleague. The Netherlands, with Martina running a crucial second leg, also won a gold medal at last summer’s European Athletics Championships in Helsinki.
Kenya’s Silas Kiplagat is the man to beat in the 1500m. He won the mile in Eugene in 3:49.48 and can boast of a best over the metric distance of 3.29.27. He has as his target the 2013 world leading time of 3:31.39 by his friend and rival Asbel Kiprop at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha last month.
There will be an interesting battle, from a Dutch point-of-view, in the Pole Vault, with Rens Blom and Eelco Sintnicolaas in action.
Blom is the 2005 World champion, who gave up his promising coaching career to return as an athlete last year and has battled back from injury. Sintnicolaas won the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships Heptathlon and is an international standard pole vaulter.
The women’s Pole Vault sees Cuba’s London 2012 Olympic Games silver medallist Yarisley Silva face Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg and Russia’s former World champion and World record holder Svetlana Feofanova.
In the Long Jump, USA’s Dwight Phillips and Panama’s Irving Saladino, the 2004 and 2008 Olympic champions will battle with Germany’s 2012 European champion Sabastian Bayer.
Cors van den Brink for the IAAF
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