Kenenisa Bekele on Provistional entry list for Daegu

G-Money

He's currently down as a provisional entry due to questions marks over his injury. I only recently discovered him but he seems to have an amazing kick. Would love to see him in the 10,000m

http://www.universalsports.com/news-blogs/blogs/blog=blockheadblog/postid=545492.html

YFlyer

G-Money wrote: »

I only recently discovered him but he seems to have an amazing kick.

He can move alright.

Brianderunner

Best distance runner in history. Farah vs himself would be something to savour.

tHE vAGGABOND

He has been injured for ages tho - Im actually sorta surprised he has the qualifying time, due to his lack of any running

ecoli

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

He has been injured for ages tho - Im actually sorta surprised he has the qualifying time, due to his lack of any running

He is reigning World Champion he is automatically entered as are all without having to qualify. He has not race since Edinburgh XC which was nearly 20 months ago. He was supposed to be in some low key races over the last few week but none materialised.

pconn062

Even if he does make it, I can't see him beating Farah, the guy is in the form of his life and ran a suberb 10,00 metres a few weeks ago, 26:46. :eek:

ecoli

pconn062 wrote: »

Even if he does make it, I can't see him beating Farah, the guy is in the form of his life and ran a suberb 10,00 metres a few weeks ago, 26:46. :eek:

If KB does come back to run it you can be sure he is in top form as he wont risk it unless he is sure he can challenge for gold. The man has Never lost a 10k race in his life

corny

pconn062 wrote: »

Even if he does make it, I can't see him beating Farah, the guy is in the form of his life and ran a suberb 10,00 metres a few weeks ago, 26:46. :eek:

He probably can't run to it given the injury problems but Bekele has run 30 seconds faster than that!

airscotty

Thats some record if its true!!

pconn062

corny wrote: »

He probably can't run to it given the injury problems but Bekele has run 30 seconds faster than that!

Don't get me wrong, the guy is a legend and I would love to see him back for EC. Its such a shame that one of the great athletes of our generation has been sidelined due to injury for so long.

G-Money

airscotty wrote: »

Thats some record if its true!!

Yeah, Bekele currently holds the world record for the 10,000m - 26:17.53

Seres

Would love to see Bekele back in action , he is so magnificent to watch , made the 10k WR look easy ! Would like to see Mo Farah given him a race , he comes across as such a nice guy

ecoli

He's in:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/16082011/58/bekele-defend-world-title-despite-year.html

shels4ever

Thats great news,

Brianderunner

Bekele and Farah neck and neck with 200m to go, what a thought

ecoli

Brianderunner wrote: »

Bekele and Farah neck and neck with 200m to go, what a thought

I think the Ethiopians running as a team will be more than enough to make up for his absence of races in the last 2 years

shels4ever

ecoli wrote: »

I think the Ethiopians running as a team will be more than enough to make up for his absence of races in the last 2 years

Yes but how would you go about beating Farah , he has beaten everyone of slow pace ,fast pace races. Had Bekele not been on the start list its hard to look past Farah even with a team of Ethiopians. Can't wait for this race

fiddy3

Bekele is a different proposition to everyone. It's Farah who has to beat him, not the other way around.

ecoli

fiddy3 wrote: »

Bekele is a different proposition to everyone. It's Farah who has to beat him, not the other way around.

You are still talking of an athlete who has not raced since Jan 2010 (a race in which he finished 4th) Vs a runner who is in the shape of his life

TheRoadRunner

Brianderunner wrote: »

Bekele and Farah neck and neck with 200m to go, what a thought

Come on bekele.

G-Money

Great news, looking forward to this.

Although I really should have started this thread within the World Champs thread, woops!

ecoli

G-Money wrote: »

Great news, looking forward to this.

Although I really should have started this thread within the World Champs thread, woops!

This man has:
16 World XC Gold Medals
5 Gold World Championship medals
3 Olympic Gold medals
2 Current World Outdoor records

(not mentioning his silver or bronze)

Surely that warrants a thread of its own.;)

G-Money

It will be interesting to see how Mo Farah gets on against him. Bekele holds the world record but I'd be surprised if they get close to beating that, so while Farah may not have run that fast, he may not need to.

ecoli

G-Money wrote: »

It will be interesting to see how Mo Farah gets on against him. Bekele holds the world record but I'd be surprised if they get close to beating that, so while Farah may not have run that fast, he may not need to.

This race will come down to a sprint finish most of KB championships have come down to it. Will be interesting to see where Bekele will stand on this part.
This has been his strength in previous years as he has a unique blend of exceptional endurance but also blistering speed (3.32 1500m speed) which means in the past 50 second closing laps have been enough to get the best of his competitors though Farah this year has shown he can close as fast as Merga (a great kicker) off a fast 4600.
The only thing will say is that though Bekele has not raced you can be sure training with his brother T Bekele ( a sub 7.30 and sub 12.55 runner himself)that he will have been pushed in training even more so than some races he would have done as tune up races so i think the speed could well be there.
This is all speculation however given that there has been no mention of any times in training and no racing so hard to tell exactly where he is

Gringo78

He rarely races 10k....2004 when he broke world record was his first 10k in 12 months. 2007 WC's was his first 10k race in 24 months. 2009 WC's was his first 10k since olympics 12 months previous....he doesn't seem to need 10k tuneups so if he's getting the 3k/5k competition in training then he'll do it. Smart money on bekele.

rovers_runner

Think people are buying into the BBC hype about Farah, he's not fit to lace Bekele's shoes.

Farah winning these prep races is like someone else winning a golf major when Tiger Woods was injured while in his prime, massive * beside the result.
As mentioned earlier they were off a slow pace too, Farah won't be within 200m of the Ethiopians at the bell.

shels4ever

rovers_runner wrote: »

Think people are buying into the BBC hype about Farah, he's not fit to lace Bekele's shoes.

Farah winning these prep races is like someone else winning a golf major when Tiger Woods was injured while in his prime, massive * beside the result.
As mentioned earlier they were off a slow pace too, Farah won't be within 200m of the Ethiopians at the bell.

26:46 and 12:53 arent that slow and he beat fairly good fields with world and olympic medalists been left in his wake....

Gringo78

shels4ever wrote: »

26:46 and 12:53 arent that slow and he beat fairly good fields with world and olympic medalists been left in his wake....

+1 he led out a quality 10k field 3 laps from home and destroyed them. It'll be a cracking race.

ecoli

Gringo78 wrote: »

He rarely races 10k....2004 when he broke world record was his first 10k in 12 months. 2007 WC's was his first 10k race in 24 months. 2009 WC's was his first 10k since olympics 12 months previous....he doesn't seem to need 10k tuneups so if he's getting the 3k/5k competition in training then he'll do it. Smart money on bekele.

He was still running under distance tune up races in these incidences. Many athletes take this approach and try not to run many 10ks throughout the season but rather race shorter distances to get race sharp. He won World Indoor 3k in 2006 and 5 of the 6 Golden league 5000m so he was still racing competitively. This is the big difference between this time and 2007 he has actually had no races and few injuries/ setbacks which is why people are questioning whether he can come back to the form.

rovers_runner wrote: »

Think people are buying into the BBC hype about Farah, he's not fit to lace Bekele's shoes.

Farah winning these prep races is like someone else winning a golf major when Tiger Woods was injured while in his prime, massive * beside the result.
As mentioned earlier they were off a slow pace too, Farah won't be within 200m of the Ethiopians at the bell.

While I think the usual BBC hype is a bit excessive there is some merit to it. Farah this year has run as fast as KB has run since 2007. He is also on an 11 win streak from 3k-10k against the worlds best (excluding Bekele of course). While the season best does not give a complete picture given KBs finishing speed I think Mo Farah has proven he has this element running 25.5 in the closing 200m in the 3k recently, ran a 2.30 closing in his 10k record for the last 1000m as well as outkicking Merga (a notable kicker) in 5k. He has shown he is able to push from the front, kick off a fast pace or finish fast off a slow pace. This is something which I have not seen in any of KB's previous rivals (except perhaps Lagat in the 5k)

I do think you are right though and Ethiopa running as a team like they usually do at championships will be a factor (especially with Merga's elbows)

rovers_runner

shels4ever wrote: »

26:46 and 12:53 arent that slow and he beat fairly good fields with world and olympic medalists been left in his wake....

Bekele has ran 30 secs faster over 10k and 15 secs quicker in 5k though.
Bekele also set two olympic records in Beijing, when it really counted.
In fairness to Farah though he is a better 1500 runner so his tactics are clearly in his favour for a championship race if it doesn't go out fast, hence the Ethiopians will have to stop a slow pace.

If Farah beats them all in London next year then he'll deserve all the plaudits he will surely get, a fit Bekele is the master but will he be fit?

ecoli

rovers_runner wrote: »

Bekele has ran 30 secs faster over 10k and 15 secs quicker in 5k though.

Those times are 6 years old. If you look at it since 2006 the quickest he has ran is 26.46 which is the same time that Farah has run this year.

rovers_runner wrote: »

.
Bekele also set two olympic records in Beijing, when it really counted.

This is through but again you have to look at these times 27.01 and 12.57 both are well within many runners capabilities however i do take the point of this being in championship conditions but again you are talking about 3 years ago and also pre injury problems of KB

rovers_runner wrote: »

In fairness to Farah though he is a better 1500 runner so his tactics are clearly in his favour for a championship race if it doesn't go out fast, hence the Ethiopians will have to stop a slow pace.

Slow pace might suit KB to be honest depending on his sharpeness and speed since his injury. This has been one of Bekele's best weapons sitting on a leader and kicking in the last lap. Again this is dependent of how sharp he is from training

rovers_runner wrote: »

If Farah beats them all in London next year then he'll deserve all the plaudits he will surely get, a fit Bekele is the master but will he be fit?

This is the million dollar question his fitness which is why I think this could be one of the greatest interests of the WC this year (especially without the Bolt/Gay clash)

ecoli

Another interesting match up will be if he doubles

Farah
Lagat
Bekele

Could make for one hell of a race

token56

Has he entered into the 5K provisionally?

shels4ever

rovers_runner wrote: »

Bekele has ran 30 secs faster over 10k and 15 secs quicker in 5k though.
Bekele also set two olympic records in Beijing, when it really counted.
In fairness to Farah though he is a better 1500 runner so his tactics are clearly in his favour for a championship race if it doesn't go out fast, hence the Ethiopians will have to stop a slow pace.

If Farah beats them all in London next year then he'll deserve all the plaudits he will surely get, a fit Bekele is the master but will he be fit?

Don't get me wrong i'm not saying Farah is better then Bekele, but on current form he's the world number 1. Bekele in his prime would win without a doubt. But Farah is the best of the rest out there, he had beaten basically everyone Bekele has beaten and done it in style. I'll be watching this with my anti Farah T-Shirt on because I just don't like him myself(I don't know why), and hope he blows it in style.

ecoli

token56 wrote: »

Has he entered into the 5K provisionally?

Reigning World Champion so has a automatic entry to both 5000/10000

All reigning World Champions entitled to wild card spot in their event which does not take up one of their countries spots (which is why there could be 4 ethiopians in both races)

token56

ecoli wrote: »

Reigning World Champion so has a automatic entry to both 5000/10000

All reigning World Champions entitled to wild card spot in their event which does not take up one of their countries spots (which is why there could be 4 ethiopians in both races)

Ah ok, thanks didn't know that/

G-Money

I believe the 10,000m is on, on Sunday morning at 11.30am Ireland time.

myflipflops

There is pretty much only one question about this race: is Bekele at his peak?

If he is 100% then he is virtually unbeatable in any 10k race.

Slow pace with a monster kick at the end? Bekele wins as he has the most basic speed (watch the video of him beating Lagat in the 2009 5k when Lagat was still a legit 1500 guy).

Slow start with a burnup for last mile? Bekele wins as he has the speed endurance and the tactical class.

Team tactics means a very quick time? Bekele wins. At his best, he is 15 seconds better than anyone else.

The initial question is the key though. Nobody knows but the man himself. Personally, I don't think he will toe the line unless he feels assured of winning. The unbeaten streak at 10k in general and in World Champs in particular is a legacy he will want to hold on to. Bekele will have strong memories of Mombasa where he dropped out of the World Cross to lose his winning streak in the event as the Kenya crowd went nuts.

Farah has been a class act this season, is one of the most improved athlete i've ever seen in a short period of time and will take home a medal from Daegu. The fact is though, Bekele at his best beats Farah (or anyone else) at his best 10 times out of 10.

Should be a cracker of a race in any event and hopefully will start a rivalry going on the London next summer.