Bekele withdraws from 5000; focussing on London 2012

Bekele focussing on London 2012

Kenenisa Bekele, the legendary long distance runner, won’t start at the 5000m tomorrow morning. He travelled back to Ethiopia and is back in training with his focus on next years Olympic Games in London.

“Obviously, after my 10.000m it is a little bit to soon to run the 5000m. I am back in Addis now and already did a good training session this morning. My injury is healed completely, but I was having small problems in the lead up to the championships and that caused a delay in my preparations. I was only able to do three track sessions before I started in Daegu and that is of course not enough.”

“Maybe people wonder why I was in Daegu at the World Championships, but I felt it was important to represent my country. Besides that I have been out for a long time because of my injury and it was great to be in the athletes village, to be among my athletics friends and to be in a full stadium again. This was the best motivation for me to go back now and start my preparation for London 2012. It was not nice to lose, since I have never lost a 10.000m in my career, but sunday was my start in my preparation for London 2012.”

Kenenisa Bekele is now back in Addis Abeba where he lives and trains. He will start on the 16^th of September in the Diamond League in Brussels.