Plot to put Ethiopians in their place

Ethiopian track icons Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie are a besieged lot if elite Kenyan runners’ plot comes through in Berlin next month.

Elite runners including double World Military Games 5,000 metres and 10,000m champion Mark Kiptoo and Eliud Kipchoge, the Olympic and World silver medallist over 5,000m, go to the national trials at Nyayo National Stadium tomorrow bent on bringing down the Ethipian’s reign at the World Championship.

Kiplimo Kimutai, who finished second behind Gebrselassie at the Hengelo Grand Prix last month, has a beef with the Ethiopian. He said: “He (Gebrasesassie) defeated me in the final kick and I now want to make the team to revenge.”

He wound up training on Wednesday at Kipchoge Stadium in Eldoret.

“I believe this time we will break the dominance of our Ethiopian rival, Bekele. I know his reign is coming to an end soon,” Kiptoo said at Kipchoge Stadium. “I respect Bekele. He has done a great job and we admire him. But one day I will beat him.”

Kipchoge, who missed the World Cross Country Championship in Amman, Jordan, in March over a painful stomach cramp, has long been fronted as the man to bring down Bekele, but for the last four years he has failed to.

While in 2003 he trounced Bekele at the Paris World Championship, Kipchoge failed to match his feat at the Athens Olympics, where he settled for a 5,000m bronze.

A year later in Helsinki, he was obstructed by Australian Craig Motram in the final dash and wound fourth in a race won by compatriot Benjamin Limo.

At the 2007 World Championship in Osaka, Kipchoge had to be content with a silver medal, clocking 13:46.00 after he was elbowed by Kenyan-turned-American Bernard Lagat.

And while all thought Kipchoge would finally cement his claim on the 5,000m in Beijing, the 24-year-old was not strong enough to deny Bekele a double as the Ethiopian sprinted past him on the home stretch to leave the silver for the Kenyan.

Despite all that, Kipchoge has never given up – just like Moroccan icon Hicham El Guerrouj who, despite having been denied twice, won a double in Athens in 1,500m and 5,000m.

Kiptoo, who captained Kenya in Amman, set an impressive 12:57.6 when he was second behind Bekele at the Golden Gala in Rome a fortnight ago. But Kipchoge, boasting a personal best time of 12:46.53 set in Rome in 2004, knows he has his task cut out, having set a fast 12:56.46 in Milan in June after timing 13:00.91 in Hengelo where he finished second to Ethiopia’s Ali Abdosh (12:59.56).

Improved best time
But Bekele has since improved his season’s best time to 12:56.23, having been pushed all the way by the 32-year-old Kiptoo in Rome.
Also keen on another go at gold is Olympic bronze medallist Edwin Soi. The Kericho-based athlete has a strong sprint that not even Bekele can beat if they stay abreast until the final 100m.

World Junior 5,000m silver medallist Mathew Kisorio, Levi Matebo, Mangata Ndiwa, Thomas Longosiwa and Joseph Ebuya are also itching for the bruising 5,000m Kenyan trials, an event billed a mini world championship minus Ethiopians.

Former World Cross Country silver medallist Leonard Komon will also be in serious contention for the Berlin ticket.