Bekele Going After The World Record In Dubai

El Caballo

In 11 days time:eek:

http://www.globerunner.org/01/heaven-sent/

This caught me by suprise, wasn't expecting him to run Dubai but I geuss it makes sense with him also commiting to selection for the World Championships and the rocket fast course that is Dubai. Makes January a bit more interesting as well.

The race will be on at stupid o clock but this is one I'm pretty excited to see already. After what he done in Berlin and his comments about being not fully in peak shape leading up to it, I think it's inevitable that he will hold the record at some point and barring injury or freak weather, I think he'll do it next week. The fact that he is willing to target it and run this early in the year says he must be really confident in his fitness right now imo and I personally can't wait to see what he does.

El Caballo

Bekele is definitely shooting for the world record anyway. Seemed to be confusion about what he was going to do after Renato Canova's comments last week. His manager Jos Hermans has confirmed it.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/01/kenenisa-bekele-vs-world-record-will-kenenisa-bekele-become-first-man-history-hold-5000-10000-marathon-world-records-time-friday/

The pacers have been asked to run 2.02 flat place for 30k:eek: which would be in line to take almost a minute off the current world record. Don't see that happening but you never know with Bekele, going to be unreal to see someone even attempt that pace anyway.

BMCC1

it's on at 2.30am Irish time. Planning to set my alarm and try to watch it -although may have to do a bit of searching to find it live.

Disappoint weather forecast and the lack of a real stacked field are against a WR but as you say it is Bekele! 2.02.00 is too aggressive for a starting pace. should be going at 2.03.00 to keep everyone together for longer and then try to switch it up

curtisbrown

I think Flotrack are streaming it

El Caballo

curtisbrown wrote: »

I think Flotrack are streaming it

Yep, there's a free stream on watchathletics too.

http://www.watchathletics.com/

BeepBeep67

El Caballo wrote: »

Yep, there's a free stream on watchathletics too.

http://www.watchathletics.com/

+ here: https://eversport.tv/athletics/marathon

El Caballo

This is on tonight for any night owls, stream starts at 2:30.

dublin runner

Halfway target 61, pacers until 30km. This is going to be interesting. I really hope he does it. Fingers crossed. Given the time, course, field and weather I give him a 20% chance though.

El Caballo

dublin runner wrote: »

Halfway target 61, pacers until 30km. This is going to be interesting. I really hope he does it. Fingers crossed. Given the time, course, field and weather I give him a 20% chance though.

Yeah, hard to see him doing especially with the weather but he's guy you can never count against doing something special.

You'll be suprised with the field though. Last year, 30 guys went through 10k at sub-2:03 pace, 17 through halfway at 61:30 pace and still around 7 or 8 left at 30k at sub-2:02:50 pace which was the 30k World record at the time. Dubai has the most insane amount of unknown Kenyan and Ethiopian runners show up to it. Only the top 10 get paid so they all gun it with the leaders for as long as they can hoping to outlast the carnage that soon follows.

dublin runner

Yeah, I was reading that alright. Basically everyone goes out at a suicidal pace and whover holds on gets paid!

I wonder is Bekele on multi-year contract regarding London. It does not make a hell of a lot sense targetting 3 marathons in such a short time-span (money may of course be a big factor!). Not that I am one to question the great man. That or he suspects he won't get selected for the Worlds?

It is just great to see him back. I have never had any interest in Dubai so having him there makes a lot of sense commercially one imagines.

adrian522

Is Dubai a bit of a trial for Ethiopa for the selection for the WC? To me it doesn't make a whole lot of sense doing this and then doing London as well. I thought the conventional wisdom would be to do 2 per year which is what most of them seem to do.

Probably a good chance he wins both Dubai and London though.

El Caballo

dublin runner wrote: »

Yeah, I was reading that alright. Basically everyone goes out at a suicidal pace and whover holds on gets paid!

I wonder is Bekele on multi-year contract regarding London. It does not make a hell of a lot sense targetting 3 marathons in such a short time-span (money may of course be a big factor!). Not that I am one to question the great man. That or he suspects he won't get selected for the Worlds?

It is just great to see him back. I have never had any interest in Dubai so having him there makes a lot of sense commercially one imagines.

Don't know about the multi year contract, quite possibly. His old coach Canova says that he has to race often or he gets lazy and overweight and he never liked Bekele racing as often as he did because of his injury problems.

Definitely makes sense for the organisers. They're all freaking out over on letsrun at the minute because flotrack bought the eclusive US and Canadian rights on Monday, put it behind a paywall and shutdown the above streams in their country. First year anything like that has happened.

BeepBeep67

19 degrees at the moment, may drop to 18 at start - it's not happening

El Caballo

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

19 degrees at the moment, may drop to 18 at start - it's not happening

12mph winds too, not looking good

Krusty_Clown

So that didn't happen:
Just over an hour into the race at the Dubai Marathon, Kenenisa Bekele dropped out. He fell back early--trailing by seven seconds at 5K and 12 at 10K--before completely losing contact with the pack. His last split was 62:48 at halfway, 75 seconds behind the leaders. His countryman Sisay Lemma was through halfway in 61:33, just nine seconds over world record pace

BeepBeep67

Rumour has it they messed up the start and KB took a tumble

1 5 Tola Adere, Tamirat (ETH) MH - - +00:00 02:04:11
2 6 Wasihun Lakew, Mule (ETH) MH - - +02:36 02:06:46
3 4 Lemma Kasaye, Sisay (ETH) MH - - +03:54 02:08:04
4 31 Jigsa, Sisay (ETH) MH - - +03:58 02:08:09
5 2198 Lokwanamoi, Mark Pkorir (KEN) Main Class - - +04:27 02:08:37
6 26 Ayenew, Mekuant (ETH) MH - - +05:13 02:09:23
7 12 Bekele Molalign, Azmeraw (ETH) MH - - +06:12 02:10:22
8 10 Dechasa Beyene, Chele (ETH) MH - - +06:13 02:10:24

BeepBeep67

Can see him falling here

https://twitter.com/Sub2hrs/status/822330267549384704

Unofficial footage from the Dubai marathon. Incident involving Bekele at the start resulting in a hard fall. Updates to follow.

squiredanaher

Jakers! Thats mad. If thats him. Being on the deck in 100th position after 5 seconds sure as hell was,nt part of the game plan.

KielyUnusual

I must say I'm highly suspicious.

I wonder what he's appearance fee for this was, especially given the added interest with the World Record attempt.

Also, the fact that he is entered for London in less than 4 months time and he has just run the Berlin Marathon less than 4 months ago. He is not a machine and he is not getting any younger.

Myles Splitz

KielyUnusual wrote: »

I must say I'm highly suspicious.

I wonder what he's appearance fee for this was, especially given the added interest with the World Record attempt.

To the best of my knowledge the normal appearance fee is minimal for this race as it is put more with emphasis on the prize money (one of the largest pots for top 3) this is the reason why you get mostly no name Ethiopians coming over popping out crazy fast times.

Given the amount of PR him and Hermens did before it however there may have been some but most of the money here was coming from running fast

200,000 prize money for the win
250,000 prize money for WR
Nike Bonus (unspecificied) for WR
Nike Bonus for large marathon win

All in all even without the appearance fee being taken into account there was more incentive to go after the record here as opposed to London.

Also most Marathon appearance contracts stipulate a minimum distance to be eligible for the fee (unless you are Mo Farah in London this is normally about 30k into the race)