Bekele Going For 10K WR At Pre!

[gh]

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

[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.

[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)...

[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.

[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.

[Brian]

[quote=Master Po]

For Bekele to break his awesome 10K record will be very unlikely.
Why?

Look at what was going on when he went under 26:20.

His current WR was beaten and there was a bit of one up man ship going on.

Bekele had intense revenge and Country Honors engaged on his cleverly crafted attack in which he regained the world record ...

SW

SW,
Perhaps I simply don't understand what you wrote here, but your post reads like Bekele was motivated in his WR attempt to reclaim his previous WR from someone from another country who had broken it. But what was really going on when Bekele ran his 26:17 WR in 2005 was that he broke his own WR of 26:20, which he had run in 2004, and when he set that WR, he broke his countryman Geb's 26:22 WR, which had stood since 98.[/quote:bjhgh53i]


Plus there may be a little of this going on behind the scenes this time, too.

Hengelo was pretty much cleared for Geb's 10,000m. shot before The Games...incentive for Bekele to upstage him at another venue (in a healthy, competitive way, of course)? Not to mention the adidas/Hengelo and Nike/Eugene sponsorship factor possibly playing a part.


[Damn, I guess I just mentioned it. ]

[gh]

Yeah, I was there for Sigei, and it was awesome. I thought it was implicit when I said "last-lap excitement" I meant in a competitive sense.

[kuha]

How about a 10K WR with last-lap excitement?

I've only seen two 10k WRs (Sigei at Oslo, Tergat at Brussels), but both had absolutely electrifying last laps--everyone in the stadium standing and screaming, all eyes riveted on the guy in front. There's nuttin' like it...

[gh]

How about a 10K WR with last-lap excitement?

[dl]

....
Any WR on that day will be a near solo performance and not very likely.

SW

"solo" is how 10K records are set. I'm guessing no 10K WR setter has had anbody within legit striking distance of him since Viren/Puttemans at Munich in '72!

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.

Paul Koech (26:36) finished a bit behind Tergat (26:27) in his WR, but pushed him for a decent amount of the race. I was at the meet, but I can't remember from memory when Tergat pulled away, but it wasn't a solo attempt for most of the race. Not sure this qualifies as "striking distance" however...

[Master Po]

For Bekele to break his awesome 10K record will be very unlikely.
Why?

Look at what was going on when he went under 26:20.

His current WR was beaten and there was a bit of one up man ship going on.

Bekele had intense revenge and Country Honors engaged on his cleverly crafted attack in which he regained the world record ...

SW

SW,
Perhaps I simply don't understand what you wrote here, but your post reads like Bekele was motivated in his WR attempt to reclaim his previous WR from someone from another country who had broken it. But what was really going on when Bekele ran his 26:17 WR in 2005 was that he broke his own WR of 26:20, which he had run in 2004, and when he set that WR, he broke his countryman Geb's 26:22 WR, which had stood since 98.

[gh]

....
Any WR on that day will be a near solo performance and not very likely.

SW

"solo" is how 10K records are set. I'm guessing no 10K WR setter has had anbody within legit striking distance of him since Viren/Puttemans at Munich in '72!

[dl]

I have absolutely zero inside knowledge on what's going on with this record attempt, but I doubt Bekele would run a 10,000m at PRE unless he truly was in shape to take a shot at his own standard.

He could've had an easier time of it by just running the two-mile (although he wouldn't be guaranteed of winning by any means).

[Spiritual Warrior]

For Bekele to break his awesome 10K record will be very unlikely.
Why?

Look at what was going on when he went under 26:20.

His current WR was beaten and there was a bit of one up man ship going on.

Bekele had intense revenge and Country Honors engaged on his cleverly crafted attack in which he regained the world record and made old fools like me shake my head in dis-belief.

For Bekele to break his world record he will have to fall into a near perfect, even pace the whole way for it to happen.
This is the only way.
If this is a race, involved, where the pace picks up, and slows, with mid race tactics going on, the record will not even come close.

Any WR on that day will be a near solo performance and not very likely.

SW

[Helen S]

4:49.99

Didn't Rupp learn anything from knowing about this? Obviously he was "ruined"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can now take my tongue out of my cheek. - )