Beijing Olympic Preview: Men’s 10,000 Meters

August 14th, 2008 | EthioPolitics.com |

The Schedule: Sunday, Aug 17 (live on NBC)

The Contenders: #1 Kenenisa Bekele (ETH), #3 Moses Ndiema Masai (KEN), #10 Sileshi Sihine (ETH), #18 Haile Gebrselassie (ETH), #19 Micah Kogo (KEN), #22 Martin Mathathi (KEN)

The Stats: Records, 2008 List,
2007 Worlds, 2004 Olympics

The Medal Picks: T&FN - Bekele, Sihine, Mathathi;
SI - Bekele, Sihine, Masai

The Story: This event is dominated by Ethiopia and Kenya, and Ethiopia has been recently taking the best of the former. The Ethiopians have entered their three greatest runners of the last two decades: “The Emperor” Gebrselassie, his heir Bekele, and Sihine, who in five tries has never lost to anyone but these two in a championship 10k. A sweep would be surprising only in that Geb seems to have lost a little bit of the edge necessary for track racing.

The Kenyans answer with a young track runner (Masai, their Trials 10k champ), a cross-country specialist (Mathathi, bronze at last year’s Worlds 10k), and a road racer (Kogo). None are exactly chopped liver, but neither do they have the credentials of their Ethiopian counterparts.

The only other runner likely to have a shot at the medal stand is American Abdirahman, who is having the best year of his career. He set a big PR (27:14) at the Prefontaine Classic and handily won the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Note: Athletes’ rankings refer to TheFinalSprint.com’s World Points Standings, and medal picks come to us from Track & Field News and Sports Illustrated, respectively.