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Kenenisa Bekele has crowned a superb TDK Golden League spectacle in
Brussels. The Ethiopian broke his own 10,000 m world record at the 20th
Ivo van Damme Memorial in front of a capacity crowd of 48,000
spectators in the Stade Roi Baudouin. A year ago Kenenisa Bekele had
clocked 26:20.31 minutes in Ostrava. This time in Brussels the 23
year-old ran 26:17.53.
Kenenisa’s brother Tariku played quite a part in the
world record race. The
18 year old paced the race until half way. After 13:09.19 minutes they reached
the 5,000 m mark. And shortly after that Kenenisa Bekele was on his own. Standing
ovations accompanied the Ethiopian during his world record hunt. In the end he
had to run a 60 seconds lap to break the world record. Kenenisa Bekele ran
57.09 seconds – the record was broken and the 1,60 m tall runner was celebrated
by the ecstatic crowd.
“Everything was perfect here today – the weather, the pacemakers, the crowd”,
said Kenenisa Bekele, who ended his season after his world record. Also
the times of the following runners were very good. Boniface Kiprop (Uganda)
was runner up in 26:39.77 minutes. That is the 12th best time of all
times. Third place was taken by the Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru who established a new
junior world record with 26:41.75 minutes. The old mark was 27:04.00 minutes
(Kiprop).
Saif Saaeed Shaheen showed a sweeping world record hunt in the 3,000 m
steeplechase – even though he did not quite reach a new mark. The Quatari and
former Kenyan athlete was on his own shortly after the first half. In 5:16 minutes he passed
the 2,000 m mark and was on schedule to break his own world record of 7:53.63
minutes. But in the end he ran a 7:55.51 minutes. After all it was the third
best time ever. The runner up was Simon Vroemen (Netherland). He set a new
European record of 8:04.95 minutes. Third was Brahim Boulami (Morocco) in
8:07.48.
The high-class long distance events have a tradition in Brussels. So
there was also
a 5,000 m men’s race. Here it was Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) who won scarcely
in 12:50.22 minutes, just ahead of Abderrahim Goumri from Morocco (12:50.25)
and
world champion Benjamin Limo (Kenya/12:55.26).
The assumed world championships’ favourite at 1,500m, Daniel Komen, had failed
sensationally in the prelims in Helsinki. Now
the Kenyan showed his qualities. With a long sprint he won in 3:31.13 minutes and
beat the World Champion Rachid Ramzi (Bahrain/3:32.81). Ivan Heshko
(Ucraine/3:32.95) was third. „I knew that I was able to beat the World
Champion. I should have done it at the World Championships. Maybe it would have
been better to finish second here and first in Helsinki”,
said Daniel Komen.
The women’s 800 m was won the Spaniard Mayte Martinez with a strong finish in
2:00.66 ahead of Tatyana Andrianova (Russia/2:01.09) and Hazel Clark
(USA/2:01.15). In contrast to Helsinki,
where he was second, the Russian 800
m Olympic Champion Yuri Borzakovskiy timed his final sprint exact. In 1:44.54
he won scarcely ahead of Youssef Saad Kamel (Bahrain/1:44.58). Third was the
Canadian Gary Reed in 1:44.93.
The meeting had already started with a running highlight: The women’s 5,000 m
race was on world record pace. The pacemaker Olga Komyagina (Russia) was
leading the field to the 2,000 m mark in 5:45.13 minutes. The pace would have
been good to better the world record of the Turkish Elvan Abeylegesse (14:42.68).
But when the leading group had to run without the pacemaker nobody wanted to
take the initiative.
Therefore it was no world record at the end, but a new African record: the
Olympic Champion Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) ran
a speedy last of just over 60 seconds to beat fellow Ethiopian Berhane Adere. Defar
ran 14:28.98 minutes, Adere finished in 14:31.09. The third place was also
taken by an Ethiopian: Ejegayehu Dibaba ran 14:37.34. „During the race I never
looked at the time, I was just fighting. Therefore I am very happy to have run
the African record“, said Meseret Defar.