[dehai-news] Let the games Begin!


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From: DESALE YACOB (ydesale@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 07 2008 - 10:45:05 EDT


Dear Funs of Eritrean Athletics:
 
Four years have already passed since the Olympics of 2004. The Athens Olympics will also remain very special to the nation of Eritrea and Eritreans all over the world. It was a year when Eritrea won its first medal and its flag was hoisted in front of the entire world. It was also the year when an Eritrean American Mebrahtom (Meb) Keflezighi won the silver medal in a very historical Marathon taking place in the birth place of the Olympics. The bronze medal winner Zersenay Tadese was a new comer to the world of distance running and his debut was nothing but spectacular. He went head to head with the elite runners of our times and proved to be an elite runner himself. The years that followed the 2004 Olympics were filled with great accomplishments for Zersenay and joy for his funs all over the world.
 
Zersenay started competitive running only two years prior to winning the bronze in Athens and the rest is history. We will highlight the success of Eritrean athletes as we prepare to witness their upcoming participation in the Beijing Olympics this August. We will start with Zersenay and please read the following IAAF profile.
 
EAAA
July 7, 2008
 
ZERSENAY Tadese, Eritrea(5000/10,000m, cross country)
Born 9 February 1982, Eritrea
Coach: Jeronimo Bravo
Until 2004, the world's best known Eritrean distance runner was an American - Mebrahtom Keflezighi, winner of multiple US championships, and surprise silver medallist in the 2004 Athens Olympic marathon. But another surprise in Athens, in the 10,000m, made it clear that the small East African country had begun to develop some of its talent at home. Zersenay Tadese, who had started competitive running barely two years before, collected an Olympic bronze medal for Eritrea, finishing behind the formidable Ethiopian duo of Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine (and ahead of Haile Gebrselassie).
Since 2004, Zersenay has established himself as the pre-eminent Eritrean-born distance runner with a series of brilliant performances in his favoured range of 10km to Half Marathon, culminating in two world titles—first, the World Road Running Championship, in Debrecen, Hungary, in October 2006 (56:01 for 20km), and then, in one of the great upsets of recent athletics history, the World Cross Country Championship, in Mombasa, in March 2007, where he outlasted Kenenisa, winner of five Long Course and Short Course doubles.
Zersenay’s first appearances on the international scene in 2002 were in these same events: he finished a modest but creditable 30th in the World Cross 12km, in Dublin in March, and 21st a few weeks later in the World Half Marathon, in Brussels (63:05). He went on in August to finish 6th in the 10,000m (28:47.29) at the African Championships, in Tunis.
The following winter he was something of a power on the European cross country circuit. In six competitions he never finished worse than 3rd. In the 12km at the 2003 World Cross Country Championships, in Lausanne, he came in 9th.
Zersenay improved that position by one in the World Championship 5000m, in Paris, setting a personal and national record 13:05.57, and improved one more position (7th) in his next global competition in October, the World Half Marathon Championship, in Vilamoura, Portugal (61:26).
In March of 2004 he bettered his placing yet again, taking 6th in the 12km at the World Cross Country Championships, in Brussels. And in a low-key meeting in Spain, in June, he ran 10,000m in 27:32.61, another personal and national best, beating an international field by nearly a minute. So for anyone paying attention, Zersenay’s bronze medal in the Olympic 10,000m (27:22.57, a ten-second PB in 30+ degree temperatures) should not have been such a shock. Neither should his 7th (13:24.31) in the Olympic 5000m eight days later.
The following spring, after a busy season on the Spanish cross country and road circuit, he improved from bronze to silver in global competition, taking 2nd behind Kenenisa in the 12km at the 2005 World Cross Country Championships, in St. Etienne. His relentless progress up the podium slipped at the World Championships, in Helsinki, where he doubled, as he had in Athens. He finished a lowly 14th in the 5000m (13:40.27), perhaps suffering the effects of the punishing 10,000m six days earlier, where he notched a national record 27:12.82 but came in only 6th. He improved the NR by eight seconds a few weeks later in Brussels (27:04.70 for 7th), and since then he has been all but unstoppable.
>From September 2005, when he won the Great North Run Half Marathon, in what was then a world record time (59:05), until now, he has finished worse than 2nd only twice in 24 races of 9km or more. Those were his 4th places in the 2006 World Cross Country Championships, in Fukuoka, and in the 10,000m at the 2007 Osaka World Championships, in Osaka (27:21.37).
In addition to his victories in the 2006 World Road Running Championships and the 2007 World Cross Country Championships, Zersenay’s podium finishes in the last two years have included a 27-second win in the 10,000m at the 2007 All Africa Games (27:00.30 in steamy Algiers), and five 2nd places, including a national record 26:37.25 in the 2006 Brussels Golden League 10,000m behind Kenyan Micah Kogo’s world leading 26:35.63. Most recently, he scored a gun to tape victory in the Dam tot Damloop 10 miles in the Netherlands, winning by 29 seconds in a PB 45:52.
In Udine, Zersenay defends his first World Championship over a distance, the Half Marathon, at which he as always shone. He faces an unusually strong squad from Kenya, which comprises four men who have bettered 60 minutes for the distance. Among them are last year’s WRRC silver medallist, Robert Kipchumba and the world record holder, Samuel Wanjiru. But Zersenay has already captured two world titles, and better than anyone else in the race, he knows how to win at this level.
Yearly Progression
5000/ 10,000m: 2002 – 13:48.79/--; 2003 – 13:05.57/--; 2004 – 13:13.74/ 27.22.57; 2005 – 13:12.23 / 27:04.70; 2006 – 12:59.27 / 26:37.25; 2007 – -- / 27:00.30.
Personal Bests
5000m: 12:59.27 (2006)10,000m: 26.37.25 (2006)10km: 27:24 (2007)15km: 42:17 (2005)20 km: 56:01 (2006)Half Marathon: 59:05 (2005).
Career Highlights
2002 30th, World Cross Country Championships2002 21st, World Half Marathon Championships2002 6th, African Championships, 10,000m2003 9th, World Cross Country Championships2003 8th, World Championships, 5000m2003 7th, World Half Marathon Championships2004 6th, World Cross Country Championships2004 3rd, Olympic Games, 10,000m2004 7th, Olympic Games, 5000m2005 2nd, World Cross Country Championships2005 6th, World Championships, 10,000m2005 14th, World Championships, 5000m2006 4th, World Cross Country Championships2006 1st, World Road Running Championships, 20k2007 1st, World Cross Country Championships2007 1st. All Africa Games, 10,000m
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