All hail the new king of Ethiopia

Kenenisa Bekele, the 22-year-old Ethiopian who is set to emerge as the glittering star of the track at the Olympic Games in Athens, hides his face in his hands. The laughter takes hold of him. He rocks gently back and forth, unsure whether he is more embarrassed or exhilarated to be asked if his mentor, the legendary Haile Gebrselassie, has recovered from having two of his world records smashed in the space of eight days.

‘I don’t know how he is really feeling,” Bekele eventually says as he shyly lowers his hands. ‘He will look happy because we are friends. But we are also competitors, so I do not know what he thinks inside. It is OK. He is a great man.”

With two Olympic gold medals, four world championship wins and 17 world records, Gebrselassie is justifiably acclaimed as the greatest distance runner in history. Yet the belief is growing that Bekele may be even better. At the beginning of June in Hengelo, Holland, Bekele ran the 5 000m in 12min 37,35sec, racing alone for the last six laps as he beat Gebrselassie’s record by two seconds. His speed was so fierce and his stamina so unremitting that the easiest way to comprehend the scale of such a run is to point out that Bekele came close to running three successive four-minute miles as he completed each lap in a fraction over 60 seconds.

The following Tuesday he knocked two seconds off another exalted Gebrselassie world record by running 10 000m in 26min 20,31sec. That run, on June 8 in Ostrava, fulfilled Gebrselassie’s prediction 18 months ago that Bekele could surpass both his records. Yet the old emperor of the track would not have expected to be outstripped so quickly by his young disciple.

Even more ominously for Gebrselassie, the young Ethiopian coolly explains that he could soon improve his new world best. ‘The first 5 000m in Ostrava was not good. We were under pace. We were four seconds off the record after the first half. My pacemakers did not have such a good performance. I had to run on my own the last 12 laps and make up the time. It was only on the last lap I feel the record. I had to run about 58 seconds and it was tough because I was very tired over the last 2km. If the pace is good for the whole 10 000m, then maybe I can take off another two seconds. I was so happy when I get back to the hotel I cannot sleep. But then I get so tired I lie on the bed. I sleep so well then.”

Gebrselassie’s sleep is more likely to be ruined over the next two months, as he tries to work out a way he might somehow cling to his Olympic 10 000m crown. In the first track final of this year’s games, on August 20, there will be a poignant undertow to the clash of the two Ethiopians — separated by a nine-year age difference but united as extraordinary runners and training partners who both come from their country’s Arsi province.

‘Haile made me want to run,” Bekele says. ‘I really try after I see him win the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. I was 14 and I watch him on television. And on top of the television I have a loud radio, so I also listen to the race. I don’t miss anything about Gebrselassie.

So when we train together it is a big dream. And now we run against each other. We have had four races. I win three times.”

In his first international track race, last year, the then 20-year-old kid travelled to Hengelo with the old master. Gebrselassie doubled as Bekele’s translator and constant guide. They ran the 10 000m shoulder to shoulder until the younger man beat him down the last straight. Three months later, at the 2003 world championship in Paris, the pattern was repeated as Bekele, Gebrselassie and a third Ethiopian, Sileshi Sihine, set a cruel pace. Bekele was even more merciless on the last lap. He simply sprinted away from his inspiration, winning gold with Gebrselassie 10m adrift at the tape.

There will be even less sentiment in Athens. From the outside the obvious Ethiopian dream would see Bekele focus on the 5 000m so that Gebrselassie might win one last gold in the 10 000m. ‘No, no,” Bekele laughs, waving his finger. ’10 000m is my best race, so I will not run the 5 000. It will be me and Haile in the 10 000. All Ethiopians love Haile. But people now call out my name at home. So, if one of us wins the 10 000 in Athens, the country will be happy. Of course, I hope it is me.”

There is an even more striking and moving simplicity to Bekele’s answer when he tries to explain his rise as a running phenomenon. ‘The weather conditions in Ethiopia are good. I run under a hot sun. And we train at altitude. But, more important, when I was born there was food.”

That last statement obliterates the usual sporting clichés about an athlete’s hunger for success or his voracious appetite for glory. Bekele was born in 1982, just before the terrible famine that ravaged his country. He nods when reminded that, inside the affluent bubble of western Europe and the United States, a typical perception of Ethiopia is limited to memories of Live Aid and Bono and Madonna belting out a ditty or two for millions of starving children.

‘I know. But we were lucky. My father was a barley farmer and there was enough food in our village. I only really learned about the famine in class at school. Many died. We now want to make the world see Ethiopia in another way.”

Bekele was raised in the village of Bekoji in southern Ethiopia as one of six children — four boys and two girls. His youngest brother, Tariku Bekele, is only 17 but ‘he is very good. Last time he run 3 000m in Turin in 7min 45sec. He will be a top athlete at 5 000m.”

Derartu Tulu and Fatuma Roba — who hold Olympic gold in the women’s 10 000m and marathon — come from villages a mere 20-minute drive from Bekoji. ‘We have good runners and now most of us train together in Addis Ababa. That’s where I run with Haile. We can all do well in Athens.”

Bekele’s recent burst of records — beginning in February when he set the world’s fastest indoor time for 5 000m in Birmingham — have intensified Ethiopia’s already massive expectations. In March he won both the long- and short-course titles at the world cross-country championships for a third consecutive year. It was another extraordinary achievement — deepened by the fact that Gebrselassie abandoned cross-country years ago after failing to shine over either 4km or 12km. Yet, in his only admission of doubt, Bekele concedes that his cross-country exploits are mentally draining. ‘I was very proud but there was big pressure. I worry people will be angry if I do not win. Sometimes it is hard. But then we beat Kenya.”

After 18 successive world cross-country team victories Kenya’s supremacy was finally shattered by the jubilant Ethiopians. A similar pattern may emerge on the track as Bekele leads their Olympic challenge. ‘I will be nervous in Athens but I like track more than cross-country. I am nearly ready. All I need now is tactical training; the hard work is over.”

Bekele will run twice more before Athens — over 5 000m next month but first, this Sunday, in a 3 000m race at Gateshead, where the grand prix organisers have challenged him to beat the former world record of 7min 35,1sec, which Brendan Foster set at the same track 30 years ago. Bekele admits candidly he has never heard of Foster, and that he has already run 3 000m in a faster time, but he is typically willing to enter into the local spirit of the day.

‘I have run twice in Newcastle,” he says with a grin, ‘in the snow. They say it will be better weather for the 3 000m. I will try to do what they ask but I really think only of the Olympic 10 000m now.”

Bekele will resist the temptation to run both the 5 000m and 10 000m in Athens. Apart from the heat and humidity, which he would endure better than most, the brutal competition often leaves distance runners with cut and bleeding feet. Even Bekele would struggle to run so many long heats and two finals within eight days: ‘I do not even think about it for Athens.”

He laughs coyly when the prospect of a double in the 2008 Beijing games is mentioned. ‘I will be 26 and stronger and better. But I can’t say. If the weather conditions are good in Beijing and I am fit … but I think it is too hard. I try for one in August … then we see.”

Bekele’s determination is exemplified by the marked improvement in his English. Six months ago he felt so intimidated while trying to make himself understood that he relied on Gebrselassie to act as his interpreter. His reluctance to ask for further favours from an icon he now expects to beat every time they race means that Bekele has been studying English intensely three times a week for the past three months. ‘It is more easy to run,” he says, ‘but I get better.”

Away from the nerve-shredding demands of press conferences and television interviews, Bekele’s increasing assurance is obvious.

‘I don’t know if I tell you,” he laughs, ‘because it is a big secret in Ethiopia … I don’t tell them about my girlfriend at home. But I tell you.”

Bekele looks cheekily at me. Covering his mouth with his hand again, he prepares to give me the scoop to beat all Ethiopian scoops. ‘She is also a runner and she live in Addis Ababa. Last year she won the 1 500m youth championships in Canada. She is 18 and, you know, in a few months we marry. I am excited. I think it is better I tell you before the whole of Ethiopia. They will soon find out.

‘But before then my girlfriend, she know, I think of Athens. I run as hard as I can because Haile also want gold in the 10 000. I think it will be a great race, so we count the time to the final. There are not many days left but I want them to go quick.” —