Men’s Marathon
The Schedule: Sunday, Aug 24 (live on NBC, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EDT)
The Americans: Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Brian Sell
The Contenders: Sammy Wanjiru (KEN), Martin Lel (KEN), Robert Cheruyiot (KEN), Mubarak Shami (QAT), Abderrahim Goumri (MAR), Jaouad Gharib (MAR), Tsegaye Kebede (ETH), Tsuyoshi Ogata (JPN)
The Medal Picks: T&FN – Wanjiru, Lel, Goumri; SI – Lel, Goumri, Kebede
The Story: If you look at the World Marathon Majors leader board, you would expect the race to come down to Lel, Cheruyiot and Goumri, or new half-marathon World Record holder Wanjiru. But that’s predicting the future based solely on what has happened in the past, and that’s an iffy proposition for the marathon.
First off, athletes compete so rarely that we just don’t have enough information to tell who will be at their best and who will not. This is even more true in Olympic marathons, where athletes may have spent their whole lives preparing for this one single race in preference over all others. So you are interested in an athlete who is ascendant rather than dominant…someone like, say, Ryan Hall. Or someone else we’re much less aware of.
Tsegaye Kebede answers that call. He won his first marathon, in course record time in Addis Ababa (2:15), then ran 2:08 and 2:06, plus a sub-60:00 half and a couple of 10k road wins, all in the last 13 months.
But the other confounding factor in this race will be the heat and humidity. The always-well-peaked Japanese are no strangers to these conditions. The U.S. runners have their own not-so-secret weapon they used to great advantage in Athens.
Predictions? I’m not making any – it’s just too close to call and will be one heck of a race. Just sit back, watch, and enjoy it.
Note: Athletes’ rankings refer to TheFinalSprint.com’s World Points Standings, and medal picks come to us from Track & Field News and Sports Illustrated, respectively.
LOWER OMO VALLEY, Ethiopia – “Remember, take only what you need,” says Johnny, our driver from Addis Ababa whose real name is Yohanes Tsegaye.
As soon as I step out of the Toyota Land Cruiser, parked in the shade of flat-topped acacia, all hell breaks lose. A crowd of Mursi – a tribe best known for the giant lip plates worn by its women – comes
The Mursi are in a frenzy, not because they want to welcome me to their homes. Instead, they are after lucrative photo fees demanded of picture-taking tourists who have trekked to the village of Hail Wuha, on the edge of an escarpment in one of the most isolated and inaccessible regions of Africa.
“You! You! You!” they yell at me. I am surrounded by Mursi who appear as a blur of floppy lip plates, painted faces, naked breasts and animal skins.
They tug at my clothing, reminding me that this is not an out-of-body experience. Some of the women have large plates stretching their lips to fantastic proportions, and those without plates wear headdresses with dangling cattle horns.
Thanks to its location in Ethiopia’s southern lowlands near the borders of Sudan and Kenya, the Lower Omo Valley, named after the majestic Omo River running through it, has perhaps Africa’s highest concentration of strangely beautiful microcultures, including Bume, Karo and Konso and Hamar.
When I first saw Hamar women at a market in Turmi, I was struck by their fine features, milk-chocolate skin and tight ringlet hairdos covered in a shiny mixture of cow’s butter and ochre. The result is stunning, especially in combination with cowry-shell necklaces and dazzling bead sashes.
Few outsiders venture this far into the Ethiopian bush because you can’t do it alone. I went with Toronto-based Africa Adventure and Study Tours Inc., which hired experienced guides and a couple of four-wheel drives to cover this rugged, red-soil terrain of acacia and scrub forest.
Touring the Lower Omo is certainly for the adventurous, but those who make the effort are rewarded with beautiful scenery and tribal encounters that at times make you feel as if you have returned to the dawn of human existence.
Back at the village of Hail Wuha, the Mursi refuse to accept less than 2 birr per photo, per person – about a dollar for a group shot of three – which strikes me as unusually regulated. Are they working with talent agents?
The highlands
It’s easy to be mesmerized by Ethiopia’s wild and exotic south, but the country’s northern highlands also have much to offer. Instead of primitive cultures and remote national parks inhabited by colonies of baboons and colobus monkeys, Ethiopia’s highland plateau is the center of an ancient civilization.
Over two millennia, its kings and emperors created palaces, monasteries and giant stelae that impress visitors to this day. Many of the sites can be found in and around Lake Tana, Gonder and Axum.
The top attraction in Ethiopia’s north, however, is the village of Lalibela, whose monolithic churches carved from rose-colored volcanic tuff in the late 12th century are little known in the outside world. They rival the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in Jordan and the temple of Karnak in Egypt with one important difference: You don’t have to fight crowds.
The biggest of these churches, Bet Medhane Alem, or Saviour of the World, is roughly one-third the size of the Parthenon. Inside, I find myself alone with a priest clutching an 800-year-old processional cross. This national treasure, believed to have healing powers, once belonged to King Lalibela, who is credited with building the 11 spectacular churches of this mountainside village.
The priest shows me biblical texts written on goat-skin parchment. I’m awestruck by the detail and color of the illuminated pages. There are images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and martyred saints as old as the Lalibela Cross. I realize that Bet Medhane Alem is a living museum where visitors come into direct contact with Ethiopia’s history. Anywhere else in the world, these ancient relics would be strictly off limits to the public.
No one knows why Lalibela, a kind of city of God in the middle of the African wilderness, was built, but there are theories. According to one, King Lalibela embarked on his construction project after visiting Jerusalem, where he was so impressed by what he saw that he vowed to build a holy city in his native Africa.
Like Jerusalem, Lalibela is rocky and arid, with groves of gnarled olive trees in an otherwise barren landscape. I felt I was walking in the pages of the New Testament.
For all of Lalibela’s treasures and architectural grandeur, I was most struck by the lichen-spotted Bet Gyorgius, or Church of St. George. It is carved in the shape of a Greek cross downward into a volcanic slope, creating the illusion of having sunk into the ground under its own weight.
It also has what may be the finest exterior detailing of any church in Lalibela, and a striking courtyard dug around the outer walls.
A couple of days later, I am similarly impressed by the mountain-top Debre Damo monastery, home to Ethiopia’s oldest church, established by Syrian missionaries in the fifth century.
It’s less the church, however, and more the 80-foot climb up an ox-hide cord dangling from the monastery’s eagle-nest entrance that captures my interest.
Our guide climbs the mountain wall effortlessly. For me it’s harder, partly because I choose to climb in bare feet. By the time I reach the timber and stone gate, I’m winded. “For you, it was like 200 feet,” our laughing guide says.
Maybe, but the trip down will be easier.
– – – – – – – – – –
Erik Heinrich is a freelance writer in Canada.
PARIS, FRANCE — Merid Estifanos was still in his afternoon French class when I arrived at the Maison des Journalistes (MDJ) this afternoon to meet him. I was greeted instead by Maison’s director, Philippe Spinau, who gave me the grand tour of the house that has been home to many journalists who, like Estifanos, were forced into exile for their work.
Spinau, who co-founded MDJ in 2002, told me that for journalists fleeing imprisonment and violence in their home countries, finding themselves in a community of their professional peers is a source of both comfort and pride. “They may be in exile, but here they still have a professional identity,” he said.
During my tour of MDJ I met journalists from Burma, Senegal, Paraguay, Iraq, and Sri Lanka. They all had horror stories to share–imprisonment, torture, months in hiding awaiting the opportunity to leave their regions and be able to breath again.
MDJ accommodates up to 30 journalists each year from around the world providing each with a small private room, courses in French language and culture, a public transportation pass, psychological services, and coupons to by groceries for a six-month period. Spinau showed me their rooms (each named for a media outlet that provided funding), the common area with TV and video library, and the office of L’Oeil de l’Exilé (The Eye of the Exilee) the publication run by MDJ residents. Our tour ended in the basement where Estifanos and a group of his colleagues were finishing their French class. When he spotted me he jumped up to give me a hug. Though this was my first meeting with Estifanos, I felt I knew him well.
For more than a year, CPJ and Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) worked together to get Estifanos out of Sudan where he had fled to escape imminent imprisonment in Ethiopia following a 2005 crackdown on the independent press. In Sudan, he was harassed by authorities, beaten and detained. For months he left the shelter of a friend’s apartment only to check for e-mails from CPJ or RSF who, he told me, were a lifeline during his ordeal. On May 8, following weeks of lobbying French officials for approval of his visa, Estifanos arrived in Paris and moved into the Maison des Journalistes (MDJ).
Merid and I spent the afternoon talking about his experience in Sudan and his transition to life in France where language is the biggest, but not the only challenge. “We prepare our own meals. I never cooked for myself before now, so this is a good learning experience for me,” Estifanos told me with a wry smile.
In two months, Estifanos’ time at MDJ will be up and he will have to find his own lodgings and the means to support himself. He is doubtful that he will be able to continue in the field of journalism. “You can’t work if you can’t compete,” Estifanos explained. “Even if I can learn French, I don’t know that there are opportunities for refugees to work in journalism.” For the time being, he is working hard to master French and completing a book about his experiences in exile.
Sitting at a sidewalk café near MDJ I asked Estifanos what he has found most surprising about Paris. “The beauty. I read lots of books about Paris, but I didn’t expect it to live up to its reputation.”
(takethemagicstep.com) — Swimming and gymnastics are great, of course, but for us, the “real” Olympics get underway on Friday, with the first track and field events. In the day’s first final, the women’s 10,000m, Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba will try to win the first of two golds. (She will likely also run the 5,000m, an event in which she’s the world record holder.)
On the men’s side, two runners will also be seeking double gold—Kenenisa Bekele will run the 10,000m and 5,000m, and Bernard Lagat will try to duplicate the 1500m/5,000m double he won at last year’s World Championships. Their match-up at 5,000m should be an amazing race to watch.
Today, we’ll look at the men’s distance races. Check back tomorrow for a preview of the women’s events.
800m
Final: August 23
Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, just 19 years old, convincingly won the world indoor title in March, and his junior world record of 1:42.69 is the fastest time in the world this year. Still, he’ll hardly have an easy time of it. Yuri Borzakovskiy (Russia) and Youssef Saad Kamal (Bahrain) have run 1:42.79 this year. Borzakovskiy is the defending champion; Kamal is a Kenyan native and the son of two-time 800m world champion Billy Konchellah.
1500m
Final: August 19
The 1500m is a relatively open race. Last year’s world champion Bernard Lagat (USA) has a good shot at the gold, if he can reach his form of the past year. The fastest in the field this year is the Kenyan Augustine Choge (3:31.57). The fastest man in the world this year, Daniel Komen (3:31.49) failed to qualify for the Kenyan team.
3,000m Steeplechase
Final: August 18
With world record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Qatar) out with injury, yet another Kenyan medal sweep seems likely. Richard Matelong, defending champion Ezekiel Kemboi and Brimin Kipruto are supposedly the Kenyan squad, but this year’s world’s best Paul Koech (8:00.57), nominated as reserve, might start for one of them. With Tareq Taher (Bahrain), another strong Kenyan native is in the race.
5,000m
Final: August 23
The fastest runner of the year will also not be in the 5,000m; Moses Masai (Kenya/12:50.55) will run the 10,000m instead. If he competes, Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) might be the favorite. But, his start is not as certain as it is over 10,000m. Defending world champion Bernard Lagat as well as possibly Kenenisa’s brother, Tariku, and Moses Kipsiro (Uganda) should be the elder Bekele’s main challengers. In a slow, tactical race, look for the Kenyan Edwin Soi, who has a tremendous finishing kick.
10,000 m
Final: August 17
The big favorite is, of course, defending champion Kenenisa Bekele. Under normal circumstances, the Ethiopian is hard to be beat. His compatriot Sileshi Sihine placed second at the last two World Championships as well as the 2004 Olympics, and seems to be again the best bet for the silver medal. The question is to what extent the three Kenyans—Moses Masai, Martin Mathathi and Micah Kogo—as well as Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) can keep up. In their best form they have a chance. It will prove difficult for Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) to win a medal.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Kangaroo court in Addis Ababa orders the transfer of a 40-room building owned by the Ethiopian Teachers Association to a new teachers group set up by the Meles dictatorship that claims that it is the real teachers association, whose officials do not represent Ethiopian teachers. They are indeed nothing better than donkeys carrying Woyanne loads. The following is reported by Woyanne mouthpiece Walta Info Center.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (WIC) – The Ethiopian Teachers Association [the fake one] received the disputed building following a ruling by the Federal Supreme Court in its favor.
The issue of the building which has been a bone of contention between the Ethiopian Teachers Association and the former teachers association led by Dr. Taye Woldesemayat [and Ato Gomorraw Kassa] has been in and out of the court for the last ten years until the [kangaroo] court passed its ruling on February 7, 2008.
The building, which has more than 40 rooms, was handed over to the Ethiopian Teachers Association on August 5, 2008, the [fake] association disclosed.
Speaking at a press conference organized in connection with the court’s ruling, association president donkey Yohannes Benty said the return of the building contributes to the achievement of the objectives set to realize teachers’ rights and improvement of the quality of education.
The return of the building addresses the problem of office facility as well as getting rid off the confusion among some teachers to the effect that there are two teachers associations.
Most of the rooms in the building had been closed down since 1990 Eth. C. because of the court room process, it was learned.
For nearly three decades, the Ex has been one of the most revered names in the rock underground. An “avant-ethno-improv-punk band” from the Netherlands, as their Chicago label Touch and Go describes the quartet, it is second only perhaps to Sonic Youth in terms of stretching the envelope and refusing to recognize any limits for what rock ‘n’ roll can and cannot do.
Given that history and adventurous aesthetic, it comes as no surprise to find the current Ex lineup of Andy Moor, G.W. Sok and Terrie and Katherina Ex collaborating on their most ambitious tour of the U.S. with Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, a giant of a man adorned in a lion’s man and renowned in his country for developing ‘Shellele,’ a musical style that originated with tribal war chants.
Long before the Ex met Mekuria, the musicians had become fans of his work via a worn-out cassette they’d found for sale in a street market. The African influence has long been evident in the group’s music. “It’s there in the polyrhythms and the interlocking guitar lines and melodies, and also in the idea that everyone is playing all the time,” as Moor says. “We’re influenced by African music on lots of different levels, but we’re not trying to sound like an African band or imitate them in any way. That wouldn’t really make much sense.”
As for how the band came to meet their hero, that “started out as a sort of mad project of Terrie, the other guitar player from the Ex, because he traveled in Africa for a year, and he spent a month in Ethiopia at the end of the travel.” With a modest grant from the Dutch government, the Ex toured Africa, playing whatever gigs could be arranged: cow barns, community halls or performances in the street powered by a generator in a truck and advertised via megaphone and fliers.
“When we first decided to play there, I think Terrie and I went on ahead in January or April and said we’d like to come back the next year in January,” Moor says. “People said, ‘Oh, that’s too long away for us to organize anything; you should just show up in January with your instruments!’ And in the end, that’s actually how we did it.”
The group entitled one of its songs “Getatchew” on the 2004 album “Turn” even before it had met Mekuria. Once it did, he was invited to perform with the band during its 25th anniversary celebration in the Netherlands, and that eventually led to a 2006 album, “Moa Anbessa,” and the current tour. “He invited us, to be honest,” Moor says. “It was more his idea to do this record and then the tour.”
Sometimes described as an “anarchist” group, perhaps incorrectly, Moor laughs when asked if it isn’t ironic for a project so rooted in spontaneity to have celebrated a 25th anniversary, much less the approaching 30th. “I think of that all the time,” he says. “Every year I wonder what I’m gonna do next year with the Ex, but we kind of imagine that we can continue doing this for the rest of our lives, because we’ve come this far, and why would we suddenly lose the spirit? If that happens, we should stop; we’re not continuing to do it just because that’s what we do.
“We genuinely look forward to it each year, and we constantly redefine what we’re doing: Every time we rehearse again, we throw out all the old songs and start again, and by doing that, you feel a bit like you’re a new band each time you start, even though it’s the same musicians, because we’re not relying on all these old songs. That keeps it really fresh, though it’s a bit tough for the audience sometimes, because they never get to sing along. Each time they get to know the CDs, we’re not playing them anymore. But for us it’s really vital and necessary. I just think songs have a kind of life in them, a certain amount of battery power, and then once the battery runs out, you have to leave them alone.”
One way the musicians stay fresh is through collaborating with other players: Katherina Ex recently linked up with Chicagoan Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Waco Brothers to record the self-titled debut by their KATJONBAND, to be released on the local Carrot Top label next month, to name one of many side projects. “You might think that draws energy away from the band, but it doesn’t,” Moor says. “I get other ideas from other musicians, and I can always bring that back to the Ex. That is what keeps us creative.”
More than any particular politics, the rebel spirit lives in the Ex in terms of how its members define success both personally and artistically.
“The first definition we have of success is that we feel we can make great music at a concert; we don’t think about CDs,” Moor says. “We go into this practice room to rehearse, and the biggest goal that we have is to make a great live set. Even though you made the songs yourself, you have to learn how to play them, and that takes half a year. To me, that’s the biggest success. And then the fact that we live from that, that’s f—cking unbelievable; it’s really a gift.
“A lot of bands measure their success by they always have to get bigger and bigger. We don’t really feel like we need to get bigger: Our audience has pretty much stayed the same for 29 years, and it’s enough for us to survive. It’s a little bit difficult sometimes–we live a bit on the edge–but it’s enough. This thing we’re doing with Getatchew is one of the biggest things we’ve done. And that’s alright, but next year, we’ll be back playing in small clubs in Germany or France. We’ll be on to doing a new project, and that will be fine, too.”
Moor sums up the ambitions of the Ex by quoting Chicago critic, musician and champion of art and free jazz John Corbett. “”He described it really well: He said we win our audiences one member at a time. We’re not trying to do a Chumbawumba-style big hit where you subvert from within; we’re not even trying to subvert. We have our own musical vision, and it doesn’t seem to be connected to the mainstream. It’s our own personal vision, and we want to share it with people, and also shake it up–to send that energy. Some people will take it and do something with it, and some people won’t.
“But it does feel good when you go do a gig, and two years later you come back, and one guy says, ‘After I saw your gig, I started a band’ or ‘I did this’ or ‘I left my job.’ Of course, we didn’t prompt that change. We were just a sort of catalyst that set it going.”
The Ex and Getatchew Mekuria
8 p.m. Sunday
Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie, Chicago
$15
www.emptybottle.com
AND
12:15 p.m. Monday
Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago
Free
(312) 742-1168
