Kenenisa Bekele is 39 years old. He is, closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning, but the guy can run.
Remember, Kenenisa Bekele owned the World records at the 5,000m and 10,000m. His victory over Haile Gebreselassie in the 10,000m in Paris 2003 was a boxing match. It may have been the most brutal, all out, no punches held distance race in modern memory. Bekele wanted to beat Gebreselassie so bad he almost gave the race to Haile.
Kenenisa Bekele, 2021 BMW Berlin Marathon, photo by photorun.net for SCC Events
His over enthusiastic finish took Haile down, and gave Bekele his first WC gold.
The marathon has been problematic for Kenenisa. He wants this world record bad. His 2:01:41 was only two seconds off. Can he get the WR of the marathon? Yes. But it has to all work right.
This interview was done by Andy Edwards, and it was done just before the 2021 BMW Berlin Marathon. Andy Edwards, who works for Trackwise and Race News Service, is a long time interviewer of elite athletes at major European events. We are fortunate to have Andy at London helping our sites, among other content development he manages.
