News Archive

News Archive

Bekele does not chase the double while Ramzi tries it

Kenenisa Bekele didn’t give it another try to get a double gold

medal at the World Championships in Athletics. The Ethiopian 10,000 m

World Champion didn’t compete at the 5,000 m prelims on Thursday. The

world record holder already said after his 10,000 m victory that he

doesn’t want to run the 5,000 m. But it could have happened, as a

couple of times in the past, that his federation would convince him to

run. Now the final will be wide open. It will be a duel between the

Ethiopians and the Kenyans, but there might be a surprise. The

Australian Craig Mottram was in a very good shape recently. The final

is on Sunday, on the last day of the championships.

Kenyan Isaac Songok won the first heat in 13:20.36 minutes in front

of the Ethiopian Tariku Bekele. The brother of Kenenisa ran 13:20.66

while John Kibowen (Kenya/13:21.08) finished third. In the second heat

there was another Kenyan who came first: Eliud Kipchoge, the defending

champion, ran 13:12.86. Second was Craig Mottram in 13:12,93 and

Sileshi Sihine (Ethiopia) finished third (13:13.04).

On a day without any finals in running events, there were also the

800 m prelims on the schedule. Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain), who had won the

1,500 m on the day before, is among the competitors for the chase of

the gold medal. He ran 1:46.17 minutes, which was the fastest time of

the prelims.  All the favourites reached the semi finals, which

will be run on Friday.

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