Haile Gebrselassie could have secured his Olympic selection at 10,000 metres with an impressive performance at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, Holland.
Having opted out of contesting the marathon in Beijing because of his worries about the pollution, Gebrselassie came to the meeting where he had previously broken three world records to prove he was still good enough to compete at the distance at which he won his two Olympic titles in Atlanta and Sydney.
At 35, there appear to be no signs, however, of the Ethiopian slowing up. In a race billed as a trial, Gebrselassie clocked 26min 51.20sec to finish second behind his compatriot Sileshi Sihine, who crossed the line in 26min 50.53sec. They were the two fastest times in the world this year and should guarantee them selection alongside the world-record holder and defending Olympic champion, Kenenisa Bekele, who won the 5,000m.
“Running under 27 minutes was my goal,” Gebrselassie said. “Now we have to wait and see the results from a few other 10,000m races over the next few weeks and then the (Ethiopian Athletics) federation will decide.”
According to Jos Hermens, Gebrselassie’s long-time manager, the federation’s decision should be an easy one.
“Conditions were not ideal and Haile could have run 10 or 15 seconds faster,” he said. “If the federation is smart, it should pick Bekele, Sihine and Haile.
The highlight of the meeting saw Panama’s Irving Saladino produce the world’s best long jump for 14 years with 8.73m.
Only six men have jumped further and the world champion will go to Beijing as the outstanding favourite to add the Olympic gold medal to the world title he won in Osaka last summer.
Britain’s best jumpers can have little hope of beating Saladino, but the competition did see the re-emergence of Nathan Morgan, the 2002 Commonwealth champion whose career has been blighted by injury.
Morgan, who lost his lottery funding long ago, was fourth with 8.01m, while British number one Chris Tomlinson came sixth.
By Tom Knight, telegraph.co.uk
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Concern over pollution has led Haile Gebrselassie to opt for the 10,000m rather than the marathon at Beijing. Photograph: Reuters
It was a run that would have brought him a medal at last summer’s world championships in Osaka, but Haile Gebrselassie was not being so presumptuous.
As he crossed the line in Hengelo, smiling and offering a thumbs-up for the cameras, he found himself in a strange position: on a track in the Netherlands where he had broken numerous world records, this time he was in second place but no one would forget this runner-up.
“I have achieved my goal,” said Gebrselassie after the clock registered 26:51.20 for his most important 10,000m in almost four years. “I wanted to run under 27 minutes. The time was good if it allows me to go to Beijing. But it is not decided yet. The choice of my federation depends on other athletes. You never know. If others run faster, they will not take me. We must wait for the next 10,000m in Eugene or Berlin.”
In the past 15 years it has not been often that the great Ethiopian has had to talk about indecision over selection for a major championship. But at 35, his aim for Beijing this summer has switched from the marathon to the distance where he won Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000 and he understands he is not guaranteed a place.
Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma, has opted for the track again, fearing the expected pollution in Beijing to be too difficult to handle in 26.2 miles on the road. It was not an easy choice for the world record-holder, but as he demonstrated with this performance, he remains a star attraction on the track.
“Everyone would like to see me run the marathon in Beijing and not just my federation,” said Gebrselassie. “But in the end I am the one to decide. It was a difficult decision. The conditions will be very difficult, and I decided it’s better not to take the risk. I am not as good any longer as I was at the end of the 1990s when I broke [track] world records but I am training well and I have done training sessions on the track again.”
Gebrselassie, who has a 10,000m best of 26:22.75 from Hengelo nearly a decade ago, had bowed out of the distance in Athens in 2004 when he finished fifth in the Olympic final as another Ethiopian superstar, Kenenisa Bekele, took gold ahead of his team-mate Sileshi Sihine. But it was like turning back the clock on Saturday evening in the Netherlands at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadium.
This race was seen as an unofficial Ethiopian trial and the little man delivered as though he had never been away. Gebrselassie was always near the front, and took his turn to lead in a race that at first was not even at the pace to which he has been accustomed. “I didn’t expect the pacemakers to be this slow,” he said.
Bekele, the triple world 10,000m champion, opted for and won the 5,000m, yet he is all but guaranteed a spot at the longer distance in Beijing, leaving Sihine to triumph in Hengelo in 26:50:53 with Gebrselassie an equally impressive second. They were the two fastest times in the world this year while, perhaps significantly for the selectors, fellow Ethiopian Gebr Gebrmariam was only seventh in 27:20.65.
Gebrselassie has the upper hand, but if he misses out on the team in Beijing, he has not given up hope on London. “I am serious about still running in 2012,” he said.
Paula Radcliffe, the women’s marathon record-holder, could be left contemplating those Olympics too if she loses her battle to be fit for this summer, which would leave Mara Yamauchi, the British No2, as the team’s leading contender in Beijing. This morning in the capital Yamauchi will have another test of her preparations when she runs in the BUPA London 10,000m in a race that includes Germany’s Irina Mikitenko, the winner of last month’s London Marathon.