Rains force Ethiopian Olympic athletes to train outside the capital

August 11th, 2008 | EthioPolitics.com |

APA- The current rainy season in Ethiopia has forced out Ethiopian Olympic athletes out of Addis Ababa for their training, APA learns here Saturday.

Accordingly, the Ethiopian athletes scheduled to travel to the Beijing Olympics in three categories obliged to do their training outside Addis Ababa by travelling around 300 kilometres east of the capital.

“The rains in Addis Ababa had been a challenge for the athletes. That is why they have now moved to another place outside Addis Ababa,” Tesema Mamo, coach of the middle distance told APA.

He indicated that the athletes, both in the short and middle distance are currently being trained outside Addis Ababa in order to adapt to the Beijing weather, which is reported to be hot.

“That is why their travel has been delayed to make them adapt with the hot weather. This will help them to better compete in their respective events,” Mamo added.

Over 30 Ethiopian athletes are due to compete in the Beijing Olympics, including Haile Gebreselassie, who has broken over 20 world records in the short and long distance.

Genreselassie, who is currently holding the world marathon record, will participate in the 10,000 metres along with other Ethiopian athletes.

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, the world 5,000 metres record holder is also expected to break her own record in this distance while her sister, Inspector Ejigayehu Dibaba has also travelled to Beijing to compete in her favourite race, the 10,000 metres.

Kenenisa Bekele, who holds the world 10,000 metre record for men, is also expected to break his own record, but he will face a great challenge from the usual Kenyan athletes.

The Ethiopian athletes will participate in the 5,000, 10,000, 1,500, 3,000 metres and the marathon as well as in boxing.

It will be the first time for the Ethiopian athletics team to take part in boxing this year since the country started participating in the Olympics several decades ago.