By Luke Phillips, AFP
BEIJING — Ethiopian track stars are all set to dominate the 5,000 and 10,000m events at the Beijing Olympics.
But a punishing schedule, a host of tough rivals and dubious air quality in the Chinese capital could hamper bids at a double by the leading male and female long-distance athletes, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba.
Bekele and Dibaba arrive in Beijing as the acknowledged king and queen over the two distances and any failure on their part to add to their already burgeoning medal collection would be an upset.
Bekele is the defending 10,000m champion and world record holder in that event and the 5,000m. He is triple world champion over the 10km race, and has also won Olympic silver (2004) and world bronze (2003) over the shorter event.
He will put his 10-race unbeaten streak in the 10,000m to the test against the likes of team-mates Haile Gebrselassie and Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine.
Gebrselassie, who won the 10,000m gold medals in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000 before slipping to fifth four years ago, has spurned any idea of running the marathon over concerns of bad air quality in the Chinese capital.
But Bekele played down the remarks of his 35-year-old team-mate, saying he had no real concerns over the pollution in Beijing.
“The problem of pollution will be the same for all the athletes competing there,” he said. “Beijing will be very different.”
In the 5000m, Bekele will lead a strong team of runners including younger brother Tariku, a world indoor 3000m gold medalist, recently-minted World junior champion Abraham Cherkos and African bronze medalist Ali Abdosh.
Bekele has attempted the grueling double twice before — at the 2003 world championships and the 2004 Olympics — and on each occasion, he won the 10,000m, but not the 5,000m.
“It’s very tough to run a double at the Olympics,” said Bekele, who was beaten by Hicham El-Guerrouj by 0.20sec to gold in the 5,000m in the Athens Games in 2004 a few days after his 10km showing.
“I ran many kilometers in a few days in Athens, and I lost a lot of power.”
This year, the men will race the final of the 10,000m on Aug. 17. Heats for the 5,000m take place three days later, with the final on Aug. 23.
The star-studded Ethiopian squad’s hopes of matching or surpassing the country’s best medal tally in the Olympic Games — eight medals (four gold, one silver, and three bronze) — set in Sydney 2000 will also ride on Dibaba.
While the double World 10,000m champion might face equally-motivated challengers as she attempts an unprecedented double in Beijing following her 5,000m bronze in Athens, no runner has come close to her this season.
After a third World Cross country gold in March and a first African 10,000m title shortly after, Dibaba sliced four and half seconds off compatriot Meseret Defar’s World 5,000m record in Oslo and is the firm favorite in both the 5,000m and 10,000m in Beijing.
This year Defar won a third successive World Indoor 3,000m title in Valencia in March and will go head-to head with Dibaba in the 5,000m should the latter feel no after effects from the 10,000m. In addition to Defar, Dibaba will have to keep an eye on the improving Meselech Melkamu in the 5,000m, as well as the reinvigorated year-lead Mestawet Tufa and younger sister Ejegayehou Dibaba, the reigning Olympics silver medalist, in the longer event.
The women’s schedule sees the 10,000m final on the opening day of athletics action on Aug. 15. Heats for the 5,000m are four days later with the final on Aug. 22.