Bekele - 12:37.35 WR!!

[Jon]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

>I have no idea if this kid is related


He sure is:

http://www.iaaf.org/WYC03/news/Kind=2/newsId=21949.html

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

I have no idea if this kid is related, but a future star may be on the rise in any case:

This result is posted and old, but worth looking at now that Bekele:s name is the topic.

2003 World Youth Championships 3,000m: Silver medalist: Tariku Bekele ETH 7.54,71

2001 World Youth Championships 3,000m: Silver medalist: Kenenisa Bekele ETH 8.08,89

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

Darned IAAF!!! The list on their site: Most times under 13:00: Haile Gebrselassie 13 (as at 24 November 2002) // 2 more outdoors on the world leaders 2003 list (Sorry TFN / I dont have my magazines with me today - er, tonight [22.30]).

[kuha]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

Actually, I get 17 for his sub-13 count (including the indoor WR); plus one near miss at 13:00.32...

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

From runningtimes 2003-september issue:

<< "He [Bekele] is very different from the other Ethiopian runners," says Michel Van Sluis, an employee of Jos Hermens’s Global Sports Communications, who handles the Ethiopian athletes’ day-to-day affairs. "For instance he prefers to train alone 80 to 90% of the time because he doesn’t like the training the federation gives him. He is a bit of a loner. You will see him with the others at meets but always to the side. They respect him but he is quiet and different and that is his strength." >>

http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/03sept/bekele.htm

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

One record Geb has which is safe for the time being: 15 sub-13.00 5,000m races!!

[kuha]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

Oops! Duh! Yes, Geb did lower his own 12:44 to 12:41. I was there at both, so have no excuse on that one. It was over 10,000 that he played leap-frog with Hissou and Tergat.

Actually, in partial defense of my 12:41 blunder, Geb was forced to this record by Komen (in one of the few genuinely competitive WRs in the last decade or so). On his own (THAT's the key here), with pacers and full intentions of trying for a new record, Geb never came close to breaking one of his own marks (which, admittedly, is even more difficult than setting one in the first place--just ask Ondieki, Sigei, Hissou, Tergat, etc., etc.).

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

Imagine: When Saïd Aouita ran his WR 12.58,39 in 1987 and took 2,01 seconds off his own WR of 13.00,40, who in the entire world would have imagined that a four-year-old kid would grow up and run the same distance in 12.37 some 17 years later?

I am old school, perhaps, in that I am excited every single time an athlete breaks 13.00!

[gh]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

WR progression:
Zürich '95--Geb 12:44.39
Zürich '97--Geb 12:41.86

[kuha]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

Geb never came close to breaking one of his own records. He was lucky in having Komen, Tergat, etc. to push him to go faster. Will Bekele enjoy the same stimulus? Hard to say right now. Even without it, however, I'd bet that Bekele will get the 5000 record down to ca. 12:33 and the 10,000 to the low 26:10s. Given all the financial incentives, he may well be able to break his own marks once or twice before he's done...

[Dutra]

Re: Bekele - 12:37.44 WR!!

>>This guy is just awesome and he's not done with the world records
>yet...

No, he's far from done. So young, scary fast! And, its his first race
>this outdoor season? What about when he get in shape in a few months?>>

Geb broke records in Hengelo and didn't improve them in those years I don't believe.

[EPelle]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

Which was the film where he was caught wearning women:s clothing? And got blackmailed.

[marknhj]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

><<Should start
>in the UK where "educators" are teaching kids to perform
>"safe sex" by ...>>>

Showing schoolmaster John Cleese and his wife in the
>screwing scenes from "The Meaning Of Life".......? >>>>

Showing John Cleese in screwing scenes with wife in Fawlty Towers would certainly promote abstinence; however showing him with Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda would have the opposite effect...

[gh]

Re: Bekele - WR!!

<<Should start
>in the UK where "educators" are teaching kids to perform "safe sex" by ...>>>

Showing schoolmaster John Cleese and his wife in the screwing scenes from "The Meaning Of Life".......?

[EPelle]

Webb on the Web

It is now 19.11 (GMT+1) and no sign of Webb on the Web. Maybe USATF will combine Webb:s upcoming 800m and yesterday:s 1500m performances into one story.