Kenenisa Bekele to chase Dennis Kimetto’s 25km WR at TSK 25k 2017 on December 17, from spainsports

Bekele set to chase Kimetto’s 25km world record at TSK25K 2017

Kolkata, 15 December 2017 (for immediate use): Mutliple world champion and world record holder Kenenisa Bekele will be looking to add to his list of accolades at the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K on Sunday 17 December.

Speaking at the traditional pre-race press conference on Friday, the Ethiopian athletics icon said that a serious bid to improve on the 25km world record of 1:11:18, set by Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto in 2012, is likely on race day.

“At the sea level it is possible to break the world record if the conditions are not extreme and if the pollution level is within control, then you can breathe properly and your legs function well. Although I have not seen the track [course] yet, I think I would set myself a target of 1:12,” commented Bekele.

Bekele’s 25km best is 1:12:47, an intermediate time when he ran in the Berlin Marathon last year, which he went on to win in 2:03:03 and go second on the all-time list for the classic distance.

If he doesn’t succeed in beating Kimetto’s world record then he aims, at the very least, to improve his own time over the distance and gain some redemption for having to drop out of this year’s Berlin Marathon in September.

“I just could not run [in Berlin]. I could not enjoy what I was doing. My legs could not find grip on the surface. It was filled with water and hence I dropped out. But since then I have trained well and recovered well, and am ready to run this distance,” he added.

It will be the first race ever in India for Bekele, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and 18- time world champion on the track and cross country, but he has visited the country in the past as a guest of the TSK25K race promoter Procam International and as an as an ambassador for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon.