¶m10,000: Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) 27:05.90

[4 Laps]

Tedesse was treated unfairly during the race while Bekele was just waiting in the 4 place when his country man kept breaking Tedesse's rhythm and slowing him down which clearly affected him specially in a race like that in 32 degrees heat..
If you keep changing your pace each time during a race that would affect your breathing and eventually produce more lactic acid in the working musle..a trick most Africans know and impliment during a race if they want one of their country man to win, it's that odd both Tedesse and Gebremariam both didn't make it to the medals..In my opinion Gebremariam new he was not going to finish in the medal, he wanted Bekele to win, orders dont come from Bekele but from people who send them their to compete.

[pherekydes]

Bekele: 8-0 in 10.000m races, of which he has collected two world championships golds, one Olympic gold and has set two world records.

3 WC, 1 OG, 2 WR.

[Justin Clouder]

All the 10ks Bekele has run, courtesy of Tilastopaja:

26:17.53 WR 1 VD Bruxelles 26 Aug 2005
26:20.31 WR 1 GSpike Ostrava 8 Jun 2004
26:28.72 1 FBKG Hengelo 29 May 2005
26:49.57 1 WC St-Denis 24 Aug 2003
26:53.70 1 FBKG Hengelo 1 Jun 2003
27:05.10 1 OG Athens 20 Aug 2004
27:05.90 1 WC Osaka 27 Aug 2007
27:08.33 1 WC Helsinki 8 Aug 2005

Justin

[REngelhardt]

Based on dj's splits posted above, K-Bek ran faster (since he wasn't leading at any of those splits) than the following times, counting back from his finish time:

Last 400: 55.9
last 800: 1:58.13
Last 1600: 4:05.17
Last 3000: 7:53.16
Last 5000: 13:22.92

[DrJay]

All the 10ks Bekele has run, courtesy of Tilastopaja:

26:17.53 WR 1 VD Bruxelles 26 Aug 2005
26:20.31 WR 1 GSpike Ostrava 8 Jun 2004
26:28.72 1 FBKG Hengelo 29 May 2005
26:49.57 1 WC St-Denis 24 Aug 2003
26:53.70 1 FBKG Hengelo 1 Jun 2003
27:05.10 1 OG Athens 20 Aug 2004
27:05.90 1 WC Osaka 27 Aug 2007
27:08.33 1 WC Helsinki 8 Aug 2005

Justin

Average of 26:46.15 if I did the math right. Only 12 men faster than that.

[Justin Clouder]

As many as 12 are as fast as that? :shock:

I can remember when it was still considered impressive to break 28!

Justin

[DrJay]

As many as 12 are as fast as that? :shock:

I can remember when it was still considered impressive to break 28!

Justin

I know. I thought I'd find five or six when I checked pela's website.

[Bruce Kritzler]

13:22 and 4:05 finish is impressive. Reminds me of Atlanta.
Watching the tape, I don't think Bekele was ever in serious trouble. When you know you can finish like he can, you can afford to give up a lot of ground.

[Powell]

13:22 and 4:05 finish is impressive. Reminds me of Atlanta.

Not that impressive by his standards. You have to remember his WR is 26:17 - that's two 13:08s back to back!
In Paris 2003 he ran the second half in 12:57.

[gh]

13:22 and 4:05 finish is impressive. Reminds me of Atlanta.
Watching the tape, I don't think Bekele was ever in serious trouble. When you know you can finish like he can, you can afford to give up a lot of ground.

He looked WAY in trouble sitting in the stands, let me tell you. With couple of laps to go, sitting fairly close to trackside, it looked as if Sihine's time had finally come.

[tandfman]

Based on dj's splits posted above, K-Bek ran faster (since he wasn't leading at any of those splits) than the following times, counting back from his finish time:

Last 400: 55.9
last 800: 1:58.13
Last 1600: 4:05.17
Last 3000: 7:53.16
Last 5000: 13:22.92

I clocked Bekele's last lap in 55.7.

[tc]

From the IAAF Biomechanics Team's analysis of the race (available here in the media center; don't know if it's posted online): Bekele's final 100 meter splits from 9100 meters were 15.60, 15.72, 15.68, 16.12 (when he looked like he was done), 15.82, 15.62, 14.28, 13.75, 13.43, 14.05; final 200s were 31.31, 31.80, 31.43, 28.03, 27.48; final 400s 63.23, 55.51. Speed in meters/second: 6.41, 6.36, 6.38, 6.20, 6.32, 6.40, 7.00, 7.27, 7.45, 7.12. Considering the oppressive heat and humidity (worse than Atlanta or Sevilla, IMHO), this was quite an effort.

[REngelhardt]

The IAAF report on the race also announcing that not only will K-Bek be at Memorial Van Damme GL on 14-Sep, he will once again make an attempt at his own WR there. Will be interesting to see if Tariku will be the primary pacemaker again.