Bekele Going For 10K WR At Pre!

[doug091463]

k. bekele is scheduled to run against an excellent 5k field (8 runners who have gone sub 13 plus americans teg and a. goucher) on may 24th in hengelo, whatever he runs at hengelo his time at pre on june 8th should be about 2 x his 5k plus 1 minute, so next weeks race may show if he is in shape to break his own 10k record.

[26mi235]

k. bekele is scheduled to run against an excellent 5k field (8 runners who have gone sub 13 plus americans teg and a. goucher) on may 24th in hengelo, whatever he runs at hengelo his time at pre on june 8th should be about 2 x his 5k plus 1 minute, so next weeks race may show if he is in shape to break his own 10k record.

At his level, the increment is probably a little under a minute, especially if the 10,000 is the focus of a record attempt and the 5000 is not.

[Mellow Johnny]

Pre

Pre will be a solid meet this year but because it's so close to the Oly Trials in the States and elsewhere, word was it wasn't supposed to be quite as quality as in the past. Now, with the addition of Bekele and Desafar going for world records, that's changed.

Wonder how the time change/jet lag will affect their attempts at WR's since it's basically a 12-hour difference for them (and lot more than they've had to deal with going to Europe, obviously)...

[jla]

Carlos Lopes was just behind Fernando Mamede (27:13-27:17, I think) when they both broke the previous WR in Stockholm in '84. I remember readhing that they ran together for most of the race.

Actually they never ran together in that race: Lopes followed the pacemakers while Mamede let go quite early. When the pacemakers left, it was Lopes all alone at the front with Mamede all alone some 30-40 meters behind.
Then suddenly with about a kilometre to go Mamede seemed to realise that he actually was within striking distance. He then ran the last 800m in 1:57 storming past a stunned Lopes at the bell.
And Lopes despite putting up a fairly good sprint himself (last lap his fastest in the race) and breaking all existing records (World, European, Stadium, National etc) ended up with just a decent new PB as Mamede also got the club record!
A few weeks later in Los Angeles Lopes got some kind of redemption as he won the Olympic marathon while Mamede once more succumbed to "big meet pressure" and simply stepped off the track in the 10000m final.
The only reason Mamede got that 10000m WR probably was that he never had any record ambitions before the race or even until the very last stages of the race. Had he gone with Lopes and the pacemakers he most likely would have dnf'ed.

[gh]

Wow! I had forgotten all about that. Def. puts that one in the exciting-competition category.