It was a run that would have brought him a medal at last year’s world championships in Osaka, but Haile Gebrselassie (pictured right) was not being so presumptuous.
As he crossed the line in Hengelo, smiling and offering a thumbs-up for the cameras, he found himself in a strange position: on a track in The Netherlands where he had broken numerous world records; this time he was in second place but no one would forget this runner-up.
”I have achieved my goal,” said Gebrselassie after the clock registered 26:51,20 for his most important 10 000m in almost four years. ”I wanted to run under 27 minutes. The time is good if it allows me to go to Beijing. But it is not decided yet. The choice of my federation depends on other athletes. You never know: if others run faster, they will not take me. We must wait for the next 10 000m in Eugene or Berlin.”
It has not been often in the past 15 years that the great Ethiopian has expressed doubts about his selection for a major championship. But at 35, his aim for Beijing this summer has switched from the marathon to the distance in which he won Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000 — and he understands he is not guaranteed a place.
Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma, has opted for the track again, fearing the expected pollution in Beijing to be too difficult to handle over the marathon on the road. It was not an easy choice for the world record-holder but, as he demonstrated with this performance, he remains a star attraction on the track.
”Everyone would like to see me run the marathon in Beijing and not just my federation,” said Gebrselassie. ”But in the end I am the one to decide. It was a difficult decision. The conditions will be very difficult, and I decided it’s better not to take the risk. I am not as good as I was at the end of the 1990s when I broke [track] world records, but I am training well and I have done training sessions on the track again.”
Gebrselassie, who clocked a 10 000m best of 26:22,75 in Hengelo nearly a decade ago, bowed out of the distance in Athens in 2004 when he finished fifth in the Olympic final as another Ethiopian superstar, Kenenisa Bekele, took gold ahead of teammate Sileshi Sihine. But it was like turning back the clock on that Saturday evening in The Netherlands at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadium.
This race was seen as an unofficial Ethiopian trial and the little man delivered as though he had never been away. Gebrselassie was always near the front, and took his turn to lead in a race that at first was not even at the pace to which he was accustomed. ”I didn’t expect the pacemakers to be this slow,” he said.
Bekele, the triple world 10 000m champion, opted for and won the 5 000m, yet he is all but guaranteed a spot at the longer distance in Beijing, leaving Sihine to triumph in Hengelo in 26:50,53, with Gebrselassie an equally impressive second. They were the two fastest times in the world this year while, perhaps significantly for the selectors, fellow Ethiopian Gebr Gebrmariam was only seventh at 27:20,65.
Gebrselassie has the upper hand, but should he miss out on the team in Beijing, he has not given up hope for London. ”I am serious about still running in 2012,” he said. — Â