<b>24 August 24 2008 - Beijing – Similar height, similar weight, same country. And now, 28 years later, Kenenisa Bekele celebrates the 5000/10,000m double that crowned the glorious career of Miruts Yifter. No Ethiopian – not even Haile Gebrselassie – managed it in between.
But there the similarities end. Bekele is much younger than Yifter was, still has all his hair, and has run times which, on paper at least, would have lapped his predecessor at 10,000m. Yifter retired soon after registering his double. Bekele wants to go on for years, to London 2012 and beyond.
To the Olympic 10,000m record of 27:01.17 he had set on Sunday, Bekele last night added the 5000m Olympic record, clocking 12:57.82. “This is very special for me and my country,” he said. “The 5000m is a very difficult race after the 10,000m.”
Now back to the comparisons. Yifter was 1.62m and 53kg when he triumphed in Moscow. Bekele is 1.60m and 54kg. But, while Bekele is 26, nobody knew Yifter’s age - not even the athlete himself. The best estimates were pitched at 35 to 37.
Bekele is living in age of such professionalism in athletics that you cannot imagine him missing the start of an Olympic final because he was late coming out of the toilet. It happened to Yifter in 1972 after he had taken bronze in the 10,000m.
The balding double champion of 1980 had six children to Bekele’s one. He also had one of the greatest nicknames in sport - Yifter the Shifter. It may not resonate in the way Yifter the Shifter does but Ethiopia has done a good job in going for Kenenisa Anbessa (pronounced nessa-bessa). Translated, it means Kenenisa the Lion.
Yifter had wanted to run the Olympic marathon in an attempt to win three distance gold medals at one Olympics – as Czechoslovakia’s Emil Zatopek had in 1952 – but the road event was held on the same day as the 5000m.
In Helsinki, Zatopek won the 10,000m on 20 July, the 5000m on 24 July and the Marathon on 27 July and Finland’s Lasse Viren tried to emulate the feat . At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Viren repeated his double from Munich four years earlier then lined up in the Marathon the day after his 10,000m triumph. He finished fifth. Nice try, no cigar.
Bekele was not appearing in the Marathon here this morning but he did not close the door on notion of whether he might try it at London 2012, schedule permitting. “This question is very strong,” he said. “It’s too early to think about it because I have so much time to think about it. It’s difficult to answer this. I’m sorry.”
There are few pieces missing now in the Bekele jigsaw of success and, after last night, there is one fewer. He had never won a global 5000m title. On Sunday, he picked up a second successive Olympic 10,000m title to go with his World records at both distances, his three successive 25-lap wins at the World Championships, and record 12 individual World Cross Country gold medals.
After completing the first leg of his double, Bekele had said: “For the future, I want to have many, many Olympic golds, many World Championship golds. I want to continue to make history for myself and for my country.”
Bekele’s first global gold at 5000m comes after he had to settle for the silver medal behind Hicham El Guerrouj, at the 2004 Athens Olympics. At the 2003 World Championships, in Paris, Bekele was third behind Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the runner-up last night, and El Guerrouj.
Asked why it had taken him so long, comparatively speaking, to win his first big 5000m title, Bekele said: “Maybe I made some mistakes. Now I am very strong and think more about the race.”
Bekele admitted that the three Ethiopian finalists – his brother, Tariku Bekele, and Abreham Cherkos were the other two – had discussed team tactics before the final but their plans were put to the sword because of the early pace. “We said that, probably after five laps, we would make the race fast but we started after one lap,” Bekele said.
The lion roared and moved in for the kill.</b>
David Powell for the IAAF
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TIME: There has been some dispute over how big this emergency is. What is your assessment?
Meles: We have pockets of severe malnutrition in some districts in the south and an emergency situation in the Somali region. It's not small to those who are suffering, but it is a manageable problem.
Why the dispute with Unicef [which announced 6 million people at risk and 125,000 children with severe acute malnutrition, a figure it revised to 4.6 million and 75,000 after the government protested] over the scale of the problem?
Because their assessment was patently false. I do not think there was ill intention on their part. But every country is competing for emergency resources, and the more gruesome the picture [you present], the better chance you have of receiving a large share of those resources.
What's your view of emergency aid?
It's a mixed bag. When you have an emergency, there is the urge to do whatever it takes to see people get assistance. [But that can mean]the name of the game is [to] include a bit of hyperbole, and that can convey the message that the situation is hopeless when in fact it is not, and that might do some lasting damage, given the fact that all investors take their information and make their assessments on the basis of the 24-hour news cycle. Famine has wreaked havoc in Ethiopia for so long , it would be stupid not to be sensitive to the risk of such things occurring. But there has not been a famine on our watch - emergencies, but no famines.
SF Switzerland just pulled out of the Somali region, saying the [Ethiopian] security services there [who are fighting an ethnic Somali insurgency] were placing too many restrictions on it. Are you placing security and politics above humanitarian concerns in that area?
That's not true. Most of the humanitarian agencies are operating there. Only those who find it difficult to distinguish between political interference and humanitarian assistance are restricted. I can give my assurance that the Ogaden is receiving the same level of care as other affected parts of the country.
Do you think donors and receiving governments strike the right balance between food aid and development aid?
Some humanitarian assistance is clearly required and we very much welcome it. But clearly a large percentage of this goes through all sorts of NGOs, and I am not sure whether the money is being spent in a manner that adequately promotes development. There are excellent NGOs, good ones, mediocre ones and good for nothing ones. [Then again], development is not going to happen on the basis of external assistance. [A lack of foreign assistance] does not mean that development has to be abandoned.
What about the idea that assistance undermines enterprise and self-reliance?
An expression of human solidarity between the rich and the poor should not automatically be demeaning to the beneficiaries. There has been a transformation of Western thinking [on that score]. [Most Western countries] no longer believe that aid implies the unfortunate are in that position because they are inadequate, that Africans have brought this on themselves - although that has not been completely eliminated. Some people think African states cannot be trusted with the cookie jar. But there are absolutely good NGOs who have this feeling of human solidarity and who also recognize that their work can only be supplementary to the government.
What efforts are you making to reform agriculture?
It's primarily focused on the commercialization of small scale farms so that they supply the market rather than just the farmers' own consumption: improving seed varieties, irrigation, the whole gamut of agrarian reform and transformation, and increasing private investment in more large scale operations. We promote agriculturally-led industrialization. Farmers grow crops like coffee and sesame, and that strategy is reflected in our exports, which have gone up 25% for each of the last five years. Incomes in rural areas have improved very dramatically; we have double digit agricultural growth. That's still not enough to get us out of the hole, however. So we have a safety net program, which is very similar to the social welfare programs in the US. We cannot afford it ourselves as yet, and it is not funded by our own resources, but I am not particularly ashamed or worried about that. I suspect we will always have pockets of hunger. The big question is whether we have enough in our own economy to be able to finance the safety net program. We have not reached that stage yet.
Source:Time
To see the complete TV schedule, check out NBC's website
Team Ethiopia Beijing 2008 Olympics Schedule
| Date | Time (Beijing Time) | Event |
| Friday,August 15 | 19:10-19:35 | Men's 1500m Round 1 |
| 20:25-21:10 | Women's 3000m Steeplechase Round 1 | |
| 22:45-23:20 | Women's 10000m Final | |
| Saturday, August 16 | 09:20-10:00 | Men's 3000m Steeplechase Round 1 |
| Sunday, August 17 | 07:30-11:20 | Women's Marathon Final |
| 21:30-21:46 | Women's 3000m Steeplechase Final | |
| 21:55-22:15 | Men's 1500m Semifinals | |
| 22:45-23:20 | Men's 10000m Final | |
| Monday, August 18 | 21:10-21:25 | Men's 3000m Steeplechase Final |
| Tuesday, August 19 | 10:00-10:30 | Women's 1500m Round 1 |
| 19:35-20:41 | Women's 5000m Round 1 | |
| 22:50-23:00 | Men's 1500m Final | |
| Wednesday, August 20 | 20:15-21:15 | Men's 5000m Round 1 |
| Thursday, August 21 | 19:00-19:20 | Women's 1500m Semifinals |
| Friday, August 22 | 20:40-21:02 | Women's 5000m Final |
| Saturday, August 23 | 19:50-20:02 | Women's 1500m Final |
| 20:10-20:30 | Men's 5000m Final | |
| Sunday, August 24 | 07:30-10:40 | Men's Marathon Final |
Fifa has suspended the Ethiopia Football Federation |
The suspension means that Ethiopia could miss their next 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at home to Morocco on the weekend of the 5-7 September.
Fifa's Emergency Committee made the decision after the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) failed to comply with a roadmap agreed in February 2008 aimed at normalising the situation of the federation.
The EFF problems began in January when its general assembly fired the federation's president Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis.
The assembly decided to get rid of the president for what they said was the "dismal" record of Ethiopian football and elected Ahmed Yasin to replace him.
However, the January meeting was not recognised by Fifa who met both parties to find a solution.
Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf) then released a roadmap in February aimed at rectifying the situation.
The roadmap stipulated that Dr Woldegiorgis and his executive committee are the only leadership that Fifa and Caf would recognise and that another extraordinary meeting of the EFF should have been held on 29 March.
The agenda of the meeting would simply be a "motion of dismissal" of the Woldegiorgis' executive committee.
According to the EFF statutes, for this motion to be approved it would have to supported by two-thirds of the valid votes cast by the official delegates in a secret ballot.
In addition, the EFF offices were to be handed over to the recognised leadership of the association.
But the 29 March meeting never took place as Woldegiorgis was not allowed access to his office.
Now Fifa says that despite sending several reminders in recent months, none of the steps established in the roadmap have been
On the bell lap of the 25-lap race, Dibaba blew past silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse, a native of Ethiopia who now competes for Turkey and who delivered the third-fastest time ever in 29:56.34. The two ran alone for the final five laps.
Shalane Flanagan of the United States took third in 30:22.22 with a move over the final two laps, despite intestinal problems earlier in the week and confusion about her placing as the lead runners began to lap the stragglers.
"I had no idea what place it was," Flanagan said. "My coach told just to remain as calm as possible. With two laps to go, I turned on the competitive juices and let it go."
Flanagan's finish further established the American women as a resurgent force in international distance running, following a bronze in the marathon by Deena Kastor at the 2004 Athens Games and a third-place finish by Kara Goucher in the 10,000 at the 2007 world track and field championships.
"I hate the word fluke," said Goucher, who finished 10th Friday in 30:55.16. "It's been said about me. I think Shalane proved tonight U.S. running is at the world level."
Yet, it has yet to match the pre-eminence of the East Africans.
The 10,000 has come to represent the sporting ascendance of women from sub-Saharan Africa and of Ethiopia's dominance over its fierce rival, Kenya, at major international championships. Ethiopian women have now won five Olympic gold medals in distance running, while Kenyan women have yet to win their first.
Ethiopia has taken first place in three of the last five women's 10,000 meters at the Olympics. And they have kept it in the family.
Derartu Tulu, a cousin of Dibaba's, became the first black African women to win an Olympic gold medal by taking first in the 10,000 at the 1992 Barcelona Games. She won the event again at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and has come to represent for some women the possibility of escape from a life of forced subservience.
"From Tulu, we are accustomed to the 10,000," Dibaba said after Friday's victory. "It goes without saying that we have to do well. The footsteps of Tulu have to repeat themselves."
Dibaba and Tulu come from the same high-altitude village, Bekoji, located in Ethiopia's southern highlands. So does Dibaba's sister Ejegayehu, who finished 14th Friday after taking the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics. Also from this famed running center are Fatuma Roba, the 1996 women's Olympic marathon champion, and Kenenisa Bekele, the 2004 Olympic champion at 10,000 meters and silver medalist in the 5,000.
Bekoji is located on a verdant plateau, at about 10,000 feet and is as bountiful at producing runners as it is producing wheat and teff, a millet that is rich in calcium, protein and iron. Running is the favored and necessary mode of transportation for many young children in their trips to and from school and in their performance of such chores as hauling water and firewood.
The Dibabas grew up in a conical mud hut and their parents, who are subsistence farmers, lacked electricity, so the family had to go to a local hotel to watch Tulu win the 10,000 at the Barcelona Games.
Tirunesh's own elite running career got an inadvertent start
In 2001, as a 16-year-old, she traveled to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to join her sister Ejehgayehu and another relative who is variously described as a sister and a cousin. With the school year having already begun, Tirunesh said in an interview last year that she entered a cross-country race, finished fifth and was signed to run for the nation's prison police, a common practice in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Two years later, as an 18-year-old, Dibaba became the youngest track athlete to win a world title, crossing the line first in the 5,000 meters at the world track and field championships in Paris. Her style of running emulates that of Miruts Yiftur, known as Yifter the Shifter for a last-lap kick that propelled him to gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Dibaba could become the first woman to win both events in the same Olympics if she runs the 5,000 here, an event at which she holds the world record of 14:11.15. At this point, she is uncertain about doubling. But there was never any doubt that Dibaba would prevail with her searing kick in the 10,000 final.
"My expectation was to get gold," Dibaba said, "beautiful, everlasting gold."
Ethiopia has 31 Olympic medals and all have been won in distance events in athletics. The first was Abebe Bikila, who won gold running barefoot in the Rome marathon. Then four years later, in shoes, became the first dual Olympic marathon champion.
Then came two great names of distance running, Mamo Wolde and Miruts Yifter, who both won three Olympic medals across two Games.
In 1992 Derartu Tulu became the first black African women to win an Olympic medal when she won the 10,000m. Eight years later in Sydney, she again won the 10,000m to become the first woman to win two gold medals in Olympic distance events. She won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004.
In 1996 multiple world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie won an exciting 10,000m ahead of Kenya's Paul Tergat. The pair renewed their rivalry in Sydney and it proved to be an even more thrilling race. In a sprint for the line, Gebrselassie edged Tergat by just 0.09s, one of the closest ever finishes in a distance event.
National Anthem
Title: Whedefit Gesgeshi Woude Henate Ethiopia [March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia]
Composer: Words by Dereje Melaku Mengesha, music by Solomon Lulu Mitiku.
Inducted: 1992
IOC Membership
Founding Date: 1948
Date of IOC Recognition: 1954
NOC President: Dagmawit Girmay
NOC General Secretary: Dr Mulalem Bessie
IOC Member(s):
First OG Appearance: 1956
Number of OG Appearance: 10
Summary:
Medals per sport
Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total
Athletics 14 5 12 31
Total 14 5 12 31
?Medals per year
Year Gold Silver Bronze Total
1960 1 0 0 1
1964 1 0 0 1
1968 1 1 0 2
1972 0 0 2 2
1980 2 0 2 4
1992 1 0 2 3
1996 2 0 1 3
2000 4 1 3 8
2004 2 3 2 7
Total 14 5 12 31
