(roocha.net) — This race is not getting the same level or hype as the Women’s 5000. Had Legat won the 1,500, the hype around this race would be incredible. Nonetheless, it should be a thrilling and wide open race. Anyone of five runners, Kenenisa Bekele, Eliud Kipchoge (KEN), Moses Kipsiro(UGA), Edwin Soi (KEN) and Bernard Lagat (USA) are capable of wining this race. Unlike the 10,000 Kenenisa Bekele is not a lock.
In addition to the five Tariku Bekele (ETH), Abreham Cherkos(ETH), James Kwalia C’Kurui (QUA), Matthew Tegenkamp (USA) and Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa (KEN) are capable of wining medals. With ten of the fifteen runners being medal contenders it’s an understatement to call this a wide open race. In addition Kidane Tadasse (ERI) and Alemayehu Bezabeh (ESP) will not fade easy.
Legat did not look good in the 1,500 semi-finals. The story is that he has had a mild calf injury since the U.S. Olympic Trials in early July. Legat won the World Championship in 2007 by out -sprinting the pack in a slow race that clocked 13:45.87. The Kenyans and the Ethopians will make sure that this race is not slow forcing Legat to run a legitimate 5,000. Legat is inexperience at this distance and that could be a disadvantage. In addition, having spent most of his career as a second place finisher in the 1,500M and there are questions about how competitive he is. Is as competitive as Kenenisa? Legat has his work cutout and if he is not fully health tomorrow he will not medal.
Having twice raced against Hicham El Guerrouge, Kenenisa comes in with plenty of experience to take on Legat. He also has a team of young runners that should help him with team tactics. In two races against El Guerrouge Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam was horrible at executing team tactics as he considered himself a medal contender. This time around his brother Tariku would be more than glad to oblige. The 10,000 M Olympic Record that Kenenisa shows that he means business and is in top shape.
Moses Kipsiro of Uganda, third place finisher in Osaka continues to improve and should be ablejavascript:void(0) to keep up with the leaders to the end. Of the Kenyan runners, Eliud Kipchoge has shown that he can consistently medal. He was second behind Legat in Osaka. Having beat El Guerrouge and Kenenisa in 2003, Kipchoge is one of the most dangerous runners and should be considered one of the favorites.
Kenenisa has to be the race favorite but not by much. The other two Ethiopians are long shots to medal. While Tariku has the talent to medal he is inconsistent. Young Abreham Cherkos is very intriguing. Has shown flashes of brilliance and like all the great ones he is a great competitor. Watch closely because it might just be Abreham’s rehearsal for 2012.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just two days ago, Woyanne foreign minister Seyoum Mesfin was telling the media that the insurgents “had been critically weakened.” He said: “They cannot sustain their own activities, let alone disband the government.”
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Somali insurgents wrested back control of Somalia’s southern port of Kismayo on Friday following three days of bloody battles with a local militia that left at least 40 people dead, witnesses said.
The retaking of the town by the Islamists came more than a year after they were driven out of Kismayo by Ethiopian Woyanne forces backing the Somali government.
“We repelled the local militias who tried to stop the light of the Islam religion,” said an Islamist commander and spokesman, Sheikh Muktar Robow.
“We aim to implement Islamic Sharia (law) in the country and any force that tries to stop (us) will regret” it, added the spokesman, a leader of the Shabab organization, the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union which briefly controlled large parts of Somalia in 2006.
Local residents also affirmed the Islamists had seized power in Somalia’s second largest city.
“Kismayo is completely under the control of the Islamists,” said Mohamed Abdi, a trader and former government official.
Another local resident Farah Abdi said: “All militias were driven out and the town is now controlled by the Islamists.”
Three days of clashes have killed 40 people and left several hundred civilians and fighters dead, according to the most recent estimate — taking into account new deaths at Kismayo’s hospital.
“So far 335 people who were wounded in the three day clashes were admitted in the hospital and six of them died from their injuries,” a medical official at the hospital said on condition of anonymity.
The previous toll placed at 34 the number killed.
Clashes erupted Wednesday between Islamist forces and the militiamen that had controlled Kismayo since the previous rulers fled in early 2007 at the height of the Ethiopian Woyanne onslaught.
A commander of a local armed group denied his militia had been routed by the Islamists, claiming instead that he had ordered his men to make “a tactical withdrawal to avoid a large number of civilian casualties.”
“There is no complete takeover and our forces will regain control of Kismayo in a very short time,” said the commander, Mohamud Hassan.
Another militia commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they hoped to regain control of the key port in the next day or two.
Several corpses still lay on Friday in the combat zones as it was too dangerous for residents to go and collect the bodies, other witnesses said.
“We buried around 12 dead bodies this morning and some of them were unidentified civilians caught in the cross-fire,” said Mohammed Omar, a Kismayo pharmacist.
Militia in Kismayo, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, are headed by Aden Barre Shire Hirale, a warlord and a lawmaker who has strained relations with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed’s administration.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops were deployed in late 2006 to prop up government forces battling the Islamist fighters who had taken control of much of southern and central Somalia. Kismayo was the Islamists’ last stronghold.
Since the toppling of the Islamist movement at the end of 2006, remnant fighters have resorted to guerrilla tactics against the Ethiopian forces, government soldiers and African Union peacekeepers in the capital Mogadishu.
Civilians have borne the heaviest brunt of battles between Islamist fighters and the Ethiopian forces. At least 6,000 have died in the past year alone, many in Mogadishu, the scene of almost daily attacks.
Hardline Islamists, including the spokesman Robow, have rejected a United Nations-backed truce between moderate Islamists and the government reached in June, insisting that the Ethiopians must pull out.
The Beijing Bird’s Nest was rattled tonight and the push and shove seemed an incentive for Ethiopian athletes to let the birds fly. Into the 14th minutes of the 5,000m it all became obvious who are going to be the winners and the question was who will conquer Beijing and the battle for gold started… continue reading below the video >>
Our Tirunesh/Tiruye Dibaba controlled and led the charge and both Elvan Abeylegesse/Hewan an Ethiopian representing Turkish and the defending Olympic champ Meseret/Mesi Defar were almost together on the final one hundred meters and Tiruye took the lead followed by Mesi and finally no one was behind Tiruye and she won and became the first female athlete to double both the 5,000m and 10,000m in Olympics. By doing so she has set high the bar for other Ethiopian female athletes.
Mesi won the bronze and no doubt the kick and shove she got before the completion of the race was a factor. You can see that at the end of the race the pain on her face. But make no mistake this day was Tiruye’s.
Her win is another inspiration for our Keneisa/Kenu Bekele tomorrow to do the same and be in a special group of athletes who won gold in 5,000m and 10,000m in Olympics, one of which is Miruts Yefter at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
Kenu’s attempt for the first time in Athens Olympics in 2004 fell short and I have no doubt he will crack the Bird’s Nest in Beijing tomorrow night. The whole world is going to see not only double victory, he could set a new Olympics record like he did in the 10,000-meter.
Who will forget Tiruye receiving a huge Ethiopian flag from Ethiopian crowd after the race and
Elvan/Hewan staring at her birth country joyous crowd waving Ethiopian Flag and no one was fast enough to hand her a Turkish Flag and that was the moment my heart was broken.
What did Elvan/Hewan felt in that moment? No one can be sure that but her facial expression proved beyond any doubt that deep inside her if all should start again she will prefer to win a medal for her birth country and get that huge celebration by carrying Ethiopian Flag and join Tiruye and Messi as the jewels of Ethiopia and Africa.
BEIJING — The women’s 5,000 meters has become less of an open race than a personal tug of war between Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar.
The women are neither enemies nor friends, but they are rivals. They trade Olympic gold medals and world records. They are in the same events, at the apex of their careers. There are only so many baubles to go around. Gold medals are not like pizza that can be divided into slices.
The rivalry turned decidedly in Dibaba’s favor Friday night as she completed a historic double, winning the 5,000 in 15 minutes 41.40 seconds and becoming the first woman to win the 5,000 and 10,000 in the same Summer Games.
As fast as the 10,000 meters was a week ago, the 5,000 was slow. The second lap took 92 seconds. A couple of 80-second laps were tossed into the middle of the sluggish 12 ½-lap race. At times, the runners seemed almost to be jogging in place.
Perhaps it would have been smart to challenge Dibaba early, to see if she had anything left in her legs after running the second-fastest 10,000 ever last week in 29:54.66.
But neither Defar, the 2004 Olympic champion in the 5,000, nor anyone took a chance. And the race played into Dibaba’s hands.
As usual, she won with her final-lap sprint, finishing ahead of Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey, who took the silver in 15:42.74, and Defar, who said she was left in pain after being bumped and settled for bronze in 15:44.12.
“This was totally contrary to my thinking,” Dibaba, 23, said of the torpid pace. “I was expecting a faster pace. They didn’t do it. I can outkick them anytime, so I waited.”
Anyone expecting a thrilling duel would have been disappointed with the tactical dullness. But Dibaba did not apologize on this hot, humid night for running a minute and a half slower than her world record of 14:11.15, set in Oslo, Norway, in early June.
“I came here to represent my country,” Dibaba said. “The major object is to win.”
With two Olympic gold medals, a world record at 5,000 meters, four world track titles and four in the world-cross country championships, Dibaba can now lay claim to the mantle of world’s greatest female distance runner.
Perhaps she even deserves the title ahead of her cousin Derartu Tulu, a two-time Olympic champion at 10,000 meters who in 1992 became the first black African woman to win a gold medal at the Winter or Summer Games.
“I really don’t know, but I’m fighting for it,” Dibaba said.
Yet it is Tulu who commands a greater presence in Ethiopia. She is a pioneer who inspired many young runners, including Dibaba, and she has a more open, public persona, while Dibaba appears reserved and unforthcoming.
“In terms of achievement, yes, she might have surpassed Tulu,” said Elshadai Negash, a prominent Ethiopian track and field journalist. “But given that Tirunesh is so shy and withdrawn, she hasn’t been getting all the credit she deserves.”
Four years ago, Defar won the 5,000 at the Athens Games and Dibaba took the bronze. They train together before major international competitions. They both seem to have a social conscience. Defar is a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Population Fund and has previously given her world-record bonuses to children’s charities. Dibaba supports a voluntary counseling and testing program for HIV/AIDS, which has ravaged Ethiopia.
Despite their common purpose, or because of it, the two runners keep a competitive distance between them. Even on the Web site of the International Associations of Athletics Federations, track and field’s world governing body, Defar insisted, “I only speak about myself and will only answer questions about myself.”
Two weeks after Dibaba set the 5,000 world record in June, Defar countered with a personal best of 14:12.88 in Stockholm, the second-fastest time ever run.
That set up what seemed to be an engaging Olympic final in the 5,000, which has been open to women since the 1996 Atlanta Games. But Defar was reluctant to set a fast pace, and so was everyone else.
“I was shocked,” said Kara Goucher of the United States, who finished ninth in 15.49.39.
The pace quickened in the later laps, but Defar never applied any real threat, saying that she had been bumped, leaving her limping and unable to unleash a kick. Dibaba ran the bell lap in 59 seconds and strolled home with the victory.
“She’s a sprinter, she’s beautiful to watch,” said Shalane Flanagan of the United States, who took 10th in 15:50.80, running on tired legs after winning a bronze in the 10,000. “And she’s got an innate ability to read everything on the track.”
Ethiopia’s Tiruneh Dibaba, Meseret Defer, and Turkey’s Ethiopian-born Elvan Abeylegesse sweep the women’s 5,000 meter race in Beijing today. Watch the thrilling race on video below.
(AFP) BEIJING – Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba produced another astonishingly fast final lap to win the women’s 5000m gold at the Beijing Olympics on Friday for the first long-distance running double in 28 years.
Dibaba, 23, who last week won the 10,000m crown, finished the 12-and-a-half lap race around a packed 91,000-capacity National Stadium in 15min 41.40sec, more than 1:30 off her own world record pace.
Turkey’s Ethiopian-born Elvan Abeylegesse claimed silver in 15:42.74, with defending champion and current world champion Meseret Defar finishing in the bronze medal position at 15:44.12.
Dibaba’s double is a landmark for women runners and the first since male compatriot Miruts Yifter’s feat over the same events at the 1980 Moscow Games.
“I am very happy,” said Dibaba. “I like Beijing very much. I will remember the Beijing Games forever because I won two gold medals here.”
Kenya’s world silver medallist Vivian Cheruiyot led the peloton out at an incredibly gentle pace, with Dibaba, Defar and compatriot Meselech Melkamu happy to sit back.
With nine laps to go, Abeylegesse took up the lead and increased the pace, followed by Defar and versatile Russia’s Guinara Galkina-Samitova, who set a world record to win the 3000m steeplechase on Sunday.
The Russian took the pack through the 3km mark at a pedestrian 9:58.13, shortly after which Defar was lucky to escape an out-an-out fall after being spiked from behind by Melkamu.
Dibaba moved to the front with three laps to go and the pace immediately picked up.
Abeyelegesse then bolted with the trio of Ethiopians snapping at her heels.
As was the case in the 10,000m, Dibaba waited for the bell to sound for the final lap before asserting her tactics of shooting off.
The Ethiopian promptly clocked a startling 59.54sec for the final 400m that killed off her rivals, Abeyelesse outsprinting Defar for second spot.
Three rivers in the Gambella region of western Ethiopia have burst their banks following torrential rains that fell in the area for three consecutive days, government officials in the area said.
“We have not yet finalised our assessment, however, an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 people have been displaced,” Akway Abala, team leader for the Disaster Prevention and Food Security Department of Gambella region, told IRIN on 22 August.
A flash flood, he added, had occurred in Lare woreda (district) after the heavy downpour that lasted from 16 to 19 August. Villages in another woreda, Itang, which is located 53km west of Gambella town, were also swept away by a flood on 12 August after the Pukong river burst its banks.
“Residents of the villages [have fled] to the highlands,” Akway said. “Some of them have sheltered with their relatives and others have made temporary huts. After we finalize our assessment, we will appeal for aid from the federal government or other non-governmental organizations.”
Gambella has been repeatedly affected by flash floods whenever rivers draining down to the region from the western highlands of Ethiopia fill up and burst their banks.
The latest reports of a flash flood have come as Ethiopia grapples with a food crisis affecting several million people
Other regions of Ethiopia have also been affected. In April 2007, several houses were damaged by flood waters in the eastern town of Dire Dawa, 515km from Addis Ababa, after heavy rains pounded the area.
The floods swept over the Addis Ketema and Decahtu suburbs, but there were no reports of casualties. In August 2006, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia’s second-largest town with a population of 400,000, was again hit by flash flooding in which at least 250 people died and nearly 10,000 were forced to leave their homes. That flood prompted the town’s administration to build sand banks in the Decahtu, Ashwa, and Hafcat.
The latest reports of a flash flood have come as Ethiopia grapples with a food crisis affecting several million people, as a result of drought, rising global food and fuel prices and poor rains.
By JERÉ LONGMAN, 
