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It was suggested taht I repost this on this forum:
I just finished watching my tape of the WC 5000m final and it confirms to me that I would have to pick Bekele for AOY Honors. He absolutely dominated in XC (someone said that would count, but Khannouchi was a near miss last year w/o racing on the track). He destroyed an army of Kenyans that were making a conscious effort to take him out. In track, 3 times he ran inside 13min for 5k, and he had two 10ks under 27min including the WC final with a sub13 second half. He easily won the WAF 3000m, but his WC performances are what seperated him from el Guerrouj. First the 10k was absolutely astonishing. To close the last 5k in sub13min is incredible. Starting to tick off 61s, Steve Cram remarked how those were his splits in some of his 1500s. He defeated Gebrselassie, the greatest distance runner ever in incredible time, and then came back a few days later for the 5000m final.
But instead of sitting back and saving himself following that 5k-effort 10k, he takes it out. What fucking balls. He knows that el Guerrouj could likely blow him away in a kickers race, so Bekele takes it out in 60.5,60.5,62.5,61.8 for the first mile and leads through 3k @ 7:45. He made the race. When Kipchoge was leading ith about 3min to go, he looked back and signaled for Bekele to do some leading. Instead of sitting back, he goes up and takes the lead. When many big races jog until the last lap, or the Grand Prix 3k final last year is won in 8:30?!?!, Bekele risked. That is just one of the gutsiest performances I can remember in recent times.
Even if you judged el Guerrouj and Bekele having equally as successful seasons (1 WC title, 1 secondary medal, some very fast races during the season) Bekele's total domination of XC and el Guerrouj's lack of an indoor season (save his 2mi WR attempt) I think Bekele must deserve the AOY title.
My two cents.
I just finished watching my tape of the WC 5000m final and it confirms to me that I would have to pick Bekele for AOY Honors. He absolutely dominated in XC (someone said that would count, but Khannouchi was a near miss last year w/o racing on the track). He destroyed an army of Kenyans that were making a conscious effort to take him out. In track, 3 times he ran inside 13min for 5k, and he had two 10ks under 27min including the WC final with a sub13 second half. He easily won the WAF 3000m, but his WC performances are what seperated him from el Guerrouj. First the 10k was absolutely astonishing. To close the last 5k in sub13min is incredible. Starting to tick off 61s, Steve Cram remarked how those were his splits in some of his 1500s. He defeated Gebrselassie, the greatest distance runner ever in incredible time, and then came back a few days later for the 5000m final.
But instead of sitting back and saving himself following that 5k-effort 10k, he takes it out. What fucking balls. He knows that el Guerrouj could likely blow him away in a kickers race, so Bekele takes it out in 60.5,60.5,62.5,61.8 for the first mile and leads through 3k @ 7:45. He made the race. When Kipchoge was leading ith about 3min to go, he looked back and signaled for Bekele to do some leading. Instead of sitting back, he goes up and takes the lead. When many big races jog until the last lap, or the Grand Prix 3k final last year is won in 8:30?!?!, Bekele risked. That is just one of the gutsiest performances I can remember in recent times.
Even if you judged el Guerrouj and Bekele having equally as successful seasons (1 WC title, 1 secondary medal, some very fast races during the season) Bekele's total domination of XC and el Guerrouj's lack of an indoor season (save his 2mi WR attempt) I think Bekele must deserve the AOY title.
My two cents.
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