While ‘Bekele’s cat’ is away the others can play in Brussels – ÅF Golden League

Monte-Carlo – When in Beijing last month Kenenisa Bekele became the sixth man in history to complete a 5000m and 10,000m Olympic gold medal double, in the process retaining his 10,000m title, there was no longer any doubting the preeminence of the 26-year-old Ethiopian maestro in the recent history of the longest Olympic track distances.

The reigning three-time World 10,000m champion and the World 5000m and 10,000m record holder, Bekele is the big cat in the house of track distance running and all others who currently inhabit his domain seem by comparison like scurrying, frightened mice in his presence.

Yet with Bekele closing his season after successful post-Beijing races in Zürich and Gateshead, the mice will have the run of the track over 10,000m in Brussels this Friday (5 Sep) in the reassuring knowledge that their ultimate predator in this competitive feeding chain will be absent.

As usual, the Memorial Van Damme – ÅF Golden League – meeting will stage the greatest annual 10,000m race outside the major championships. The World 10,000m record has been broken three times at the meeting with the current World record of 26:17.53 by Bekele from 2005 remaining unbeaten. 12 out of the 20 all time best 10,000m performances have been set at the Memorial Van Damme!

Leading the field of more than 20 runners in Brussels on Friday will be the next three who finished behind Bekele in Beijing.

Sileshi ‘Silver’ Sihine, who has taken 10,000m silver medals at the 2008 and 2004 Olympics as well as 2005 and 2007 World championships (+ a 10,000m bronze in 2003 behind Bekele and Gebrselassie, and a 5000m silver in 2005 behind Benjamin Limo), is perhaps the unluckiest of runners by finding himself competing in the same era as Bekele.

Behind Sihine’s silver which made it the usual 1 – 2 for Ethiopia, Micah Kogo of Kenya took the Olympic bronze just 0.001 ahead of compatriot Moses Masai (27:04.104 to 27:04.105). Masai remains in good form, taking third place behind Bekele over 5000m (13:00.15) in Zürich last Friday (29).

Others to look out for in Brussels include Leonard Patrick Komon of Kenya who was under 27mins in Hengelo earlier this year finishing among others behind Sihine, Abdullah Ahmad Hassan of Qatar who was 8th in Beijing, Uganda’s 2004 Olympic fourth placer Boniface Kiprop who was 10th in China, and even the latest Ethiopian and Kenyan finds, Ibrahim Jeylan, who was the World Junior champion in 2006 and took the bronze at the same championship this year in Poland, and Kenyan Josphat Kipkoech Bett who beat him to the current junior crown.

The 10,000m will, as per tradition, end the Memorial Van Damme programme, and starts at 21:30hrs (GMT+2hrs). The 25 laps of action are sure to produce the usual athletics fireworks on the track ahead of the pyrotechnical display in the sky above the stadium which annually closes the night’s entertainment.

Chris Turner – IAAF