Kenenisa Bekele clears all obstacles for cross-country crown

By Mitch Phillips, Reuters

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – Kenenisa Bekele overcame illness, a dislodged shoe and the presence of a nervous wife to win a record sixth long course cross country world title on Sunday and confirm last year’s shock defeat was an aberration.

BKenenisa set a record with his sixth
overall world long-course title. (Photo: Getty)

Sunday’s success took his tally to a remarkable 11 senior world cross titles, with the only blip coming when he dropped out with heat exhaustion in Mombasa last year and watched Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese take his title.

There was no danger of a repeat with regard to the climate on Sunday in a cold and windy Scottish capital, though Tadese did threaten a second success with a strong, front-running performance in the early stages.

The Eritrean was helped when Bekele had to stop to replace his shoe, half torn off after being clipped by another runner, but the Ethiopian recovered smoothly and eventually won handsomely, with Tadese relegated to third behind Kenya’s Leonard Patrick Komon.

“After stopping to put my shoe back on I was thinking a lot about it, trying to focus and control my race because if I had tried to catch up too quickly it wouldn’t have worked,” Bekele told a news conference.

“But when I got back up with the leaders I was happy to sit back where I could monitor them and where I could get some shelter from the wind.

“I was more concerned about my stomach,” added Bekele, who was ill in London on Friday having missed his connecting flight from Addis Ababa.

“Last night I wasn’t feeling good and I was up four times to go to the toilet so I knew it was going to be tough. It was hard with the mud too but it was the same for everyone so it didn’t bother me too much.”

Bekele showed the classic cross-country combination of speed and strength when he forged clear on the penultimate ascent of Haggis Knowe, a fierce climb that split the field in every race on Sunday.

ADULATION

He then piled on the pressure to cross the line well clear and began to accept the adulation.

“I’ve won double gold medals five times at this competition but this one was very special for me,” he said.

“This record sixth title is a high honour in my life but who it compares to I’ll leave for others to judge.”

The presence of his wife, Ethiopian film actress Danawit Gebregziabher, watching him live at a major event for the first time, also seemed more of a distraction than a support.

“Somebody told me afterwards that when my shoe came off she nearly fainted so it did add a lot of pressure,” he said.

Bekele can now turn his attention to Beijing, where he is likely to defend his 10,000 metres title and might also attempt the 5,000.

Before then, however, he has the African championships in May on home soil in Addis, where, along with the three other Ethiponian individual gold medallists on Sunday, he will almost certainly turn out.

“To not race would be like putting on a great feast and being the guest of honour and then not turning up,” he said.

“It’s a bit close to this so it won’t be easy but I do believe I have to take part, though I’m not sure what distance.”

Still only 25, Bekele’s appetite for competition remains undimmed and the world and Olympic champion and multi-world record holder says he has set no time limit on his career.

“I have accomplished a lot but I want to keep competing at this level for a long time,” he said. “I want to go on as long as I can and leave a legacy to the sport.”