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Lead Stories: Friday, November 21, 2008

Tariku Bekele, Kipchoge Lead 5000m Qualifying

Posted August 30th, 2007 at 12:50 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia, the younger brother of Kenenisa, and Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, won their respective heats of the 5000m as the 11th IAAF World Championships finished its sixth day at Nagai Stadium.

Bekele recorded an improbably slow time of 13:46.42 to win his heat off of a very slow initial pace. Indeed, there was such a large group of athletes still together at the bell that Algeria’s Khoudir Aggoune, Kenya’s Isaac Songok and Joseph Ebuya, and Morocco’s Ahmed Baday were unable to advance to Sunday’s final despite finishing within two seconds of Bekele. Only the top five from each heat automatically qualified for the final.

“I was worried about the weather,” Bekele said in a statement released by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation. “It was very difficult out there and I hope to do well in the final.”

Jesús España of Spain, Bernard Lagat of the USA, Hicham Bellani of Morocco, and Moses Kipsiro of Uganda were the other qualifiers from the first heat. Lagat won the gold medal in the 1500m last night. He chose to celebrate with an ice bath and a pizza before getting to bed to rest up for tonight’s race. The slow pace definitely saved him precious energy.
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Bekele wins 3000m and a diamond at DN Galan

Posted August 7th, 2007 at 3:52 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Kenenisa Bekele ran a time of 7 minutes, 25.79 seconds at the DN Galan meet in Stockholm, Sweden, demolishing a world-class field by nearly 10 seconds in the process. Bekele’s time is the 8th fastest 3000m ever run and makes him the 6th fastest 3000m runner of all time, just 5.12 seconds behind Daniel Komen’s world record of 7:20.67 set in 1996. His time was also good enough for a DN Galan diamond, breaking Isaac Songok’s meet record of 7.35.84 by nearly 10 seconds. Three other runners also broke the stadium record.

1 Bekele Kenenisa ETH 7:25.79
2 Cheruiyot Jonas KEN 7:35.44
3 Longosiwa Thomas Pkemei KEN 7:35.64
4 Tegenkamp Matthew USA 7:35.68
5 Maataoui Ali MAR 7:36.70

For complete meet results: [DN Galan]

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Defar returns, Gebrselassie to chase hour run world record in Ostrava

Posted June 26th, 2007 at 11:10 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

On the track where Kenenisa Bekele succeeded Haile Gebrselassie as the 10,000m world record holder, the fabled Ethiopian and his younger compatriot Meseret Defar are poised to take center stage when the European international season resumes on Wednesday at the 46th Golden Spike Grand Prix in this sprawling eastern Czech city.

Just 12 days after her staggering 14:16.63 world record in Oslo, Defar returns to action again in the 5000. Although the 23-year-old Olympic champion hasn’t promised to take her record down even further, she hasn’t fully dismissed the possibility either.