The Olympic dream turned into a nightmare for Kenenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge in Paris. Both say they are not ready to stop yet but, ultimately, the nature of the 26.2-mile challenge will decide their fate
Kenenisa Bekele might have been tired but he was still thinking clearly. He had just finished 39th in the men’s Olympic marathon in Paris, his run of 2:12:24 putting him almost six minutes behind the winner and his fellow Ethiopian, Tamirat Tola.
This had not been the outcome the 42-year-old had been looking for in what was his first Olympic marathon. A top 10 finish and the chance to mix it with the front runners, to have some fun, wreak a little havoc, was what he really desired.
But at 10km, he felt his “hamstring stretch” and the war of attrition began. There was to be no fairytale, no golden moment in the warm Parisian sun to write another chapter into one of the truly great careers. No chance to light the touch paper again.
We are witnessing, surely, the dying embers of Bekele as force on the world stage. Or perhaps not. As the athletes strode, hobbled or creaked their way through the mixed zone – the gauntlet of media questions that awaits them just beyond the finish line in the immediate aftermath of the race – he came to a stop to discuss what had just unfolded on the most brutal of courses.
He was happy to have stuck to his task – “I didn’t want to drop out” – but was not about to hide the fact that this had not been one of his better days at the office. Yet, when faced with the question: “Do you want to continue with the marathon?”, he looked his inquisitor straight in the eye. “Of course,” was his immediate reply.
It is not an unreasonable question to ask of a man who has won three Olympic track titles, five world track gold medals, numerous world cross country titles and big city marathons, and has absolutely nothing to prove.
It’s not so long ago that former Athletics Weekly statistician and results editor Steve Smythe placed him firmly at the top of the list of the greatest distance runners in history, as part of a feature in the pages of our monthly magazine.
There are still flashes of Bekele’s genius, too. Anyone who saw him setting the pace and leading the charge at the tail end of the London Marathon earlier this year, in which he placed second, will have had their heart gladdened.
His run of 2:04.15 was a M40 world record, so perhaps he feels there is more history to be made in the Masters realm….
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