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Bekele does not chase the double while Ramzi tries it

2005-08-12

Rashid Ramzi
© Victah Sailer

Kenenisa Bekele didn’t give it another try to get a double gold medal at the World Championships in Athletics. The Ethiopian 10,000 m World Champion didn’t compete at the 5,000 m prelims on Thursday. The world record holder already said after his 10,000 m victory that he doesn’t want to run the 5,000 m. But it could have happened, as a couple of times in the past, that his federation would convince him to run. Now the final will be wide open. It will be a duel between the Ethiopians and the Kenyans, but there might be a surprise. The Australian Craig Mottram was in a very good shape recently. The final is on Sunday, on the last day of the championships.

Kenyan Isaac Songok won the first heat in 13:20.36 minutes in front of the Ethiopian Tariku Bekele. The brother of Kenenisa ran 13:20.66 while John Kibowen (Kenya/13:21.08) finished third. In the second heat there was another Kenyan who came first: Eliud Kipchoge, the defending champion, ran 13:12.86. Second was Craig Mottram in 13:12,93 and Sileshi Sihine (Ethiopia) finished third (13:13.04).

On a day without any finals in running events, there were also the 800 m prelims on the schedule. Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain), who had won the 1,500 m on the day before, is among the competitors for the chase of the gold medal. He ran 1:46.17 minutes, which was the fastest time of the prelims.  All the favourites reached the semi finals, which will be run on Friday.