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Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar to Contest One Event Each at 2013 World Championships in Moscow

Tadias Magazine
By Sabrina Yohannes

Updated: Friday, August 9, 2013

Moscow (TADIAS) – Ethiopia’s London Olympic champions Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar will contest just one event each at the 2013 athletics world championships in Moscow, with Tirunesh running only the 10,000-meter final on Sunday August 11, team officials confirmed on Wednesday. Meseret will run the 5000-meter elimination round next Wednesday morning before the final takes place three days later, on the evening of Saturday, August 17.

The two women had been entered in both of those events and were considered favorites to medal twice, while the double gold medal feat that Tirunesh achieved at the 2005 world championships and 2008 Beijing Olympics has served as a tantalizing prospect.

“It’s very difficult for athletes to run three races in one week,” said the Ethiopian athletic federation’s head coach Dr. Yilma Berta in Moscow on Wednesday. “It’s better for them to contest one event each, and take one event each.” The team believes the strategy would set up two golds for the nation.

For the 2004 and 2012 Olympic 5000 champion Meseret, who has medaled repeatedly over that distance, but never yet over 10,000, running the longer event first could jeopardize her chances for the shorter event. It appears to have done so in the 2009 and 2011 world championships, where she ran both events but took just one bronze medal in the 5000m. In 2009, as in 2013, she had run one of the year’s two fastest 10,000m in the world before the championships, but that did not guarantee a medal.

Tirunesh, though, would have already contested her main event, the 10,000, by the time the Moscow 5000 begins. However, even if she were to win the 10,000 and still wish to start in the 5000, she would not be able to do so, said Dr. Yilma. “It’s already been decided,” he said. “Everyone is running one race each. There are also other younger athletes who deserve the opportunity.”

Meseret will be joined in the 5000 by Almaz Ayana, who in July ran the second-fastest time any woman has run this year. That race, in Paris, was won by Tirunesh, who at the time was looking forward to racing over the distance in Moscow in addition to the 10,000.

“She wanted to run both and she had been preparing for both,” said her sister Genzebe Dibaba on Wednesday in Moscow, where she arrived ahead of her sibling. “She’s in better shape than she was last year,” added Genzebe.

The 5000 world record-holder Tirunesh did run both events in London last year, and finished the 5000 in third place after losing a final sprint to her track arch-rival Meseret, who was coming into the race with fresh legs and a fierce determination to regain the Olympic 5000 crown.

No such double attempt is in the federation’s plans for 2013, and Ethiopia’s only Moscow 10,000 and 5000 double gold that will be in the history books when these championships are over will be the legendary Miruts Yifter’s from the 1980 Olympics.

Genzebe also qualified for two events in Moscow, the 5000 and the 1500, in which she is the fastest Ethiopian of the year and the only one to have run under four minutes. “The federation wants me to contest the 1500, since there’s a shortage of athletes in it,” said Genzebe, who will run the event’s first round on Sunday morning, August 11.

The overwhelming favorite to win that event’s final is Ethiopian-born Abeba Aregawi, who represented the nation at last year’s Olympics, but had established ties with Sweden previously and now represents the Scandinavian nation.

Ethiopia does have a favored athlete in the Moscow middle distance events, as Mohammed Aman runs the men’s 800m, which starts its first round of races this Saturday morning in the absence of Olympic champion and world record-holder David Rudisha of Kenya.

Olympic champion Tiki Gelana and former world track and cross country medalist and 2012 Frankfurt marathon champion Meselech Melkamu run the Moscow women’s marathon Saturday afternoon, after which London women’s steeplechase bronze medalist Sofia Assefa competes in the first round of that event.

The 2008 Olympic and 2009 world championship double gold medalist in the 10,000 and 5000, Kenenisa Bekele, is entered as a reserve in the men’s 10,000 final, which takes place Saturday evening. Kenenisa was the fourth-fastest Ethiopian this year in both of his events, after winning the 10,000m in Eugene, Oregon in May.

That race was initially scheduled to serve as a trials race for the Moscow 10,000m, where the first three Ethiopians would automatically make the team, but that plan was abandoned before the Eugene Prefontaine Classic meeting, and Moscow selections were made based on athletes’ fastest times for the season.

“There was a plan to hold a trials race there, and then there was another plan to hold it somewhere else, but neither plan worked out,” said Dr. Yilma. Ethiopia ordinarily selects athletes for track championships based primarily on fastest times, and Kenenisa, who is gradually coming back from injury-plagued years, ran several races this season in search of fast times.

The fastest man in the world over 10,000 this year is the London Olympic 5000m silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel, who won his first race ever over the distance in Sweden in June, leading his compatriots Abera Kuma and the 2011 world 10,000m bronze-medalist Imane Merga to similarly fast times. The three men will be joined in Moscow by the surprise 2011 world champion, Ibrahim Jeilan, whose role as defending champion allows him automatic entry into the event.

Ibrahim beat Britain’s Mo Farah in 2011, but the Somali-born Farah enters the 2013 race as the reigning 10,000 and 5000 Olympic champion, and is even more heavily favored this season – not that that will stop the 5000m bronze medalist from 2011, Dejen, and his teammates from aiming for another upset victory.

Ethiopian team members receive a warm welcome at Moscow airport

Most of the Ethiopian athletes running in the first few days of the championships arrived in Moscow on Wednesday along with team coaches and officials. They were greeted by Ethiopia’s ambassador to Russia, Kasahun Dender Melese, who met the delegation inside the arrival area at Domodedovo airport.

Members of Moscow’s Ethiopian community gathered in the waiting area of the terminal holding Ethiopian flags and wearing wrist bands and scarves in the flag’s green, yellow and red colors, while some women were decked in traditional outfits from head to toe. Ululations and cheers arose when the delegation appeared, and later, flowers were presented to the London Olympic medalists in the squad.

“We want to support them all,” said Moscow businessman Gezu Gebru. “But to tell you the truth, we also wanted to meet them up close. We always watch them race on television, but this was an opportunity to see them in person.” Gezu and others in his community will also get to see the star athletes racing live in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium and on the streets of the city during the marathons, starting Saturday morning. The championships end on August 18.
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Related:
Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba Face Each Other in Zurich (TADIAS)
Steeplechaser Sofia Assefa Follows in Olympian Eshetu Tura’s Footsteps (TADIAS)
Meseret Defar Hoping to Take Back 5000m Gold in Moscow on Saturday Night (TADIAS)

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Featured, London 2012, Reviews

Ethiopian Olympic Athletes Feted

Tadias Magazine
By Sabrina Yohannes

Updated: Friday, August 17, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian athletes at the 2012 Olympics received a hero’s welcome even before they left London when the Ethiopian embassy there hosted a gala dinner in their honor Monday night.

Ethiopia earned seven medals, three of them gold, in athletics in London. The nation’s largest haul ever was in Sydney in 2000, where four out of a total of eight medals were gold; while in Beijing, four out of seven medals were gold.

Ethiopia’s ambassor to the UK, Berhanu Kebede, praised the London team.

“They are first in Africa in athletics and 24th overall and achieved excellent results, and are capable of doing even better,” he said. “They have tremendous potential. … We feel great pride. They have changed the image of Ethiopia and many people have come to know about Ethiopia.”

The nation leads the continent and trails just the United States, Russia, Jamaica and the United Kingdom on the athletics medal table, in which the order of countries is based on number of golds followed by number of silvers and then bronzes.

Kenya follows Ethiopia with two golds, though the country’s overall medal count in athletics, 11, is greater than its East African neighbor’s.

Out of 33 countries that medaled in athletics, only those six took more than one gold, with the rest of the table consisting of those with just one title or only lesser medals.

After a poet referred to the athletes as jewels and another speaker told them they had left Ethiopians abroad “awash in feelings of joy,” gold medalists Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba and silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel briefly took to the stage and addressed the gathering at London’s Porchester Hall on Monday night. Wood paneling and red velvet drapes covered the walls and chandeliers hung from the ceiling in the room, which was filled to capacity by a 450-strong crowd decked out in traditional Ethiopian and formal wear.

“You have contributed to our success,” the 5000m Olympic champion Defar told the gathering, citing the reception given to members of the Olympic delegation upon their arrival at Heathrow Airport among other displays of support London-based Ethiopians had provided.

Defar went on to point out the greater success at the London Olympiad of Ethiopia’s female athletes. Five of the seven medals and all three golds were earned by women.

Her comments received general cheers and applause and ululations from some women in the audience, and prompted London 5000m silver medalist Gebremeskel to draw laughter when he felt the need to begin his remarks by stating that he was not necessarily speaking on behalf of the male athletes, but rather the whole team. The London women’s 10,000m champion and 5000m bronze medalist Dibaba echoed Defar’s comments.

The two women and former world cross country champion Werknesh Kidane were resplendent in traditional white Ethiopian dresses, while a wider array of national costumes was on display on members of the audience, a troupe that performed traditional dances, and models taking part in a fashion show of clothes inspired by traditional designs.

“We wished to express the respect we have for [the athletes],” said the ambassador, explaining the goal of the event. “And secondly, to celebrate Ethiopia as a nation of great athletes, past and present. Furthermore, we feel this allows those who don’t know Ethiopia to experience our culture, our dress, our way of life.”

The evening included many non-Ethiopian guests, some having some connection to Ethiopia, and a buffet dinner of Ethiopian and Western fare. The highlight for most in the room, however, was clearly the proximity to the star athletes, who untiringly obliged their requests for photographs and occasional autographs.


Seated from left to right: Werknesh Kidane and Meseret Defar. (Photo courtesy of Sabrina Yohannes)


Steeplechaser Nahom Mesfin (at right) and 1500m runner Dawit Wolde (not pictured) spontaneously escort London double medalist Tirunesh Dibaba, holding a banner Ethiopian flag behind her. (Photo by Sabrina Yohannes)

“I’ve run in London many times,” said Dibaba. “Many Ethiopians live here and they are always by our side, encouraging us. They left their work behind and came to the stadium to support us and their support means a lot to us. It gives me a morale boost and motivates me to run harder to please them.”

She also expressed pride in the female athletes’ performance in London, where Tiki Gelana won the women’s marathon and Sofia Assefa took bronze in the women’s steeplechase.

“It happens that way sometimes,” said national track coach Hussein Shibo on Tuesday. “The women’s performance has risen over the years.” He went on to enumerate the nine gold medals won by Ethiopian women at recent Olympiads since Barcelona in 1992 when Derartu Tulu became the first black African woman to win gold, and he compared that to the seven Ethiopian men’s golds in that time frame. (Ethiopia boycotted the 1984 and 1988 Games.)

“The numbers are close,” he said. “However, the women have shown growth and we are happy that they have come from behind and reached this level. In the 1500, if Abeba’s race hadn’t gone wrong and if Genzebe hadn’t been injured; and if [800m runner] Fantu hadn’t been injured, the women might have totally dominated the results. So perhaps we can say this time belongs to the women.”

Abeba Aregawi and Dibaba’s sister Genzebe were top contenders in the women’s 1500, but while Aregawi finished outside the medals, Dibaba was injured during the qualifying rounds. Injury also kept Fantu Magiso out of the women’s 800.

In many events, the competition is more fierce on the men’s side, while some countries’ cultures keep women out of sports. Ethiopian women have had the example of Tulu and 1996 Atlanta marathon champion Fatuma Roba to follow, augmented by the successes of Tirunesh Dibaba and Defar.

Injuries affected the men’s results in London too, with Beijing double champion Kenenisa Bekele making his way back from injury-filled years and the year’s second-fastest 5000m runner in the world, Hagos Gebrhiwet, having been injured in the lead-up to London, while Athens Olympics fourth-placer Gebregziabher Gebremariam suffered an injury while in London before the 10,000m race.

Bekele, who was fourth in that race, left London and headed back to Ethiopia a couple of days after it. His brother Tariku took bronze.

“The overall results are very good,” said London Olympic team leader Nega Gebregziabher on Monday, adding however, “We had expected a lot, and of those, we have achieved a few.”

“With some of the younger athletes, for example, in the 1500, the 800 and also the men’s 5000, in which we could have won, due to their youth and inexperience, we suffered losses,” he said. “We will assess our performance and guage what we must do going forward.”

Mohammed Aman was also widely expected to medal in the men’s 800.

“We have the world championships coming up [next year] and these youth are fully capable of being successful,” added Gebregziabher. “Ethiopians everywhere greatly encourage our athletes, and admire our athletes, and it’s important that they boost their morale and provide encouragement, and we are confident that they will.”

Meanwhile, an even younger athlete was taking in the proceedings at Porchester Hall with special appreciation. Ethiopia’s first ever female Olympic swimmer Yanet Seyoum Gebremedhin, 18, was seated next to Dibaba at the dinner.

“She’s a very strong athlete and a role model for us,” said Gebremedhin. “I’m so happy to be representing my country alongside her. I’ve always wanted to meet her.”

Her wish was granted when the athletics team arrived in London and Gebremedhin found herself staying on the same floor in the Olympic Village, and receiving words of encouragement from her and Defar and other team members.

“They all advised me to work hard and not give up hope,” said Gebremedhin, who watched their races with interest. “Swimming and running are very different, but I’ve learned many lessons,” she said. “They fight til the very end.”

Though not expected to medal, Gebremedhin had encouraging results of her own and hopes to inspire those who are younger still. “I improved my personal record, which is Ethiopia’s record,” she said. “I hope others will learn from my experience. I’ve competed for six years and to reach the Olympics in six years is very good, but I don’t have a coach and I work on my own. If we had coaches, we could do better and not just improve our own personal bests, but, I believe, make history.”

At the 2012 Olympics, Dibaba and Defar did make history. Tulu lost and then regained the 10,000 crown in 2000, but in London, the Beijing 2008 champion Dibaba became the first to successfully defend the title, while Defar became the only woman to win the 5000m twice, after she first won in Athens in 2004.

“It’s very pleasing that at this critical competition, at the Olympics, the whole team has performed this well,” said Defar.
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Related:
Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar to Contest One Event Each at 2013 World Championships in Moscow

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