Hello Victory!

There are some post you never wish you made. I wish I had not dismissed Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam's recent success so quickly. But again his performance of the last few years was so disappointing for a guy with so much talent. Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam ran a very very smart race. For a change it was fun watching him. I am happy to see him finally win a title that he has always been capable of winning.

Here is my take on Amman. Overall it was a good showing for Ethiopia. Some people stepped up. Most noteable is Genzebe Dibaba who is showing that she is the real thing. Ayele Abshiro also showed guts. Meselech Melkamu lived up to her billing. Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam and Habtamu Fikadu did so in a big way. Actually the senior men's team as a whole stepped up in a big way.

How is it that the most disappointing bunch, the senior men, transformed themselves into winners? I think the fact that Kenenisa (the alpha male) was not around turned these guys from submissive types to contenders. With the exception of Dino Sefer and Tadesse Tola all of the runners were in contention into the last lap. It looked like most of these guys thought they could win and so gave it there best.

As for Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam he has to maintain the form he has rediscovered.

Livin' on a prayer

Here we are again. Another year another world cross championship. This may also be another year of excuses by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation. We have commented on the danger of EAF's overeliance on a handful of superstars rather than an organic approach to developing runners is dangerous in the long term. With Kenenisa and Tirunesh out with injury the EAF's approach will be tested at the World XC- Championship in Amman.

The men's team is lead by a retread, Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam who has never showed the incredible fortitude and desire he once teased us with his spectacular 2002 performance in the Junior XC Championship race. That had to be on of the great performances. Quite frankly, over the past few years Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam has been one of the most annoying runners to watch and I was hoping I would never have to see him run again. He has a chance to redeem himself but don't keep your hopes up.

Tariku Bekele is out. Good for him. He did not have much of a chance. Although very talented the self-confidence of a champion has eluded him. That wasn't about to change this year.

I like Tadesse Tola. A guy guy with a big heart. He earned a spot in my heart with his performance in Momabssa.The year of that shameful performance, the year Kenenisa and the rest of the Ethiopians melted in the heat, the year full of EAF excuses. Tadesse Tola was the highest Ethiopian finisher coming in 7th . I think that was his first international race. This kid does not like excuses. I have a feeling he will do good.

The dark horse is Habtamu Fekadu who finished 9th at last year's race. The 9th place finish made him the second Ethiopian finisher behind Kenny. He may well be the top guy on this team.

The women always seem to do a lot better than the men. They also seem to have a lot better depth. Missing Tirunesh will hurt. Gelete Burka choked big time in Beijing. She finished 6th last year's XC and can in the top 3 if she runs a good race. Meselech Melkamu was also a disappointment in Beijing but can place in the top 3 if she has a very good day. They all need luck.

Ethiopian runners are deferential to the pack leader. Maybe the absence of Tirunish and Kenenisa will confuse the pack and there will be a fight for dominance which may produce a star or two. That though could just be a wish. But I am Ethiopian and I can wish.

All in all if the women have a good day they have a chance of winning the team title. But the men are living on a prayer.

Deriba ain't so bad

I am getting to like this guy. Some may ridicule him for his collapses but one thing Deriba has going for him is that he runs his own race. Deriba is fun to follow because he does not settle for safe. He set an ambitious goal of 2:05 at the Houston Marathon. He was off his goal by more than 2 minutes but nonetheless set a course record.

Deriba is different. While others were afraid of the heat in Beijing, this guy went for gold and gave it everything. Haile tried to play it safe and avoided the marathon all together instead he gave us a half-hearted 10,000M and looked silly. Gete and Berhane made a mockery of the women's marathon. Deriba is all heart! He may be the breath of fresh air Ethiopian running needs - the un-Haile. A risk taker not afraid to make mistakes. Everyone can’t be and shouldn’t try be like Haile.

Suprise Winner at the Great Run

A relative unknown Chala Dechassa won the Men's Great Ethiopian Run. While Wude Ayalew defended her title. Upto this point Chala Dechassa's only brush with fame was a surprising 3rd place finish at this years Ababe Bikila Marathon. He has a bright future.

Sileshi & Tirunesh

In what was billed ad The Big Millennium Wedding Bash Sileshi got hitched to Tirunesh over the weekend. There is a moment by moment account of the wedding from Tirunesh's website (the website is quite good). The website claims that 500,000 greeted the bride and groom at Meskel Square. What a year Tirunesh has had!

Vote!

Of course, you should vote, if eligible, in the upcoming US Presidential Election on Nov. 4. But that is not what this post is about. It is about voting for 2008 World Athlete of the Year. Last year's winners (Tyson Gay of USA and Meseret Defar of Ethiopia) didn't even make it to the list this time. However, you can vote for Haile or Kenenisa for men and Tirunesh Dibaba for women. Make sure you VOTE, although with competition from Usain Bolt and Pamela Jelimo, the Ethiopian athletes stand about the same chance of winning the vote as John McCain.

Happy Birthday- Take Two!

After 205 posts over the past 24 months, ROOCHA, the blog, today turns TWO years old! It has been a remarkable year with lots of emotional ups and downs, victories and defeats, but it has been a lot of fun writing about our beloved sport of running from a personal, national, and international perspective. Looking forward to the next 12 months as we count down to Berlin 2009. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Chicago!

I have always wanted to do the Chicago Marathon. I had hoped this would be the year. It was not to be! Not even close. My long run got up to 16 miles but that was in early June before I developed all sorts of injuries. By the end of July I had no chance of running in this year’s Chicago Marathon. I am a victim of a life long aversion to stretching.

When not in shape, the Chicago Marathon is always a reminder to start training for next year. A solid winter of treadmill running and some Yoga will have me on target to run in the Cherry Blossom the first week of April. With moderate increase in mileage I should be on target for next year. I just hope that I some how learn to love stretching.

Back to the Chicago Marathon, after last years stunning come from behind stealth sprint finish victory Berhane Adere is out to win for the third straight time. She will be joined by Bezunesh Bekele and Worknesh Tola. Olympic champ Constantina Tomescu-Dita is also running. It will be interesting to see if Dita has recovered from her Olympic run. Berhane Adere perhaps preserving herself for Chicago was a DFN in Beijing so she should be well rested and ready.

The weather will be hot again. Last year the temperature was unseasonably warm in the 80's and the forecast this year if for temperatures in the mid to high 70's. In hindsight I am glad I am not running the Chicago Marathon this year.

Update:Berhane Adere was out of contention soon after the mid point. I wonder if something is wrong. She could be nearing the end of her career. Bezunesh Bekele ran a brave race. She went out to win but faded.

2:03:59

Just when everyone thinks there is nothing more Haile can do, he pulls out another magic trick out of his bag. In today's race, Haile had an unexpected company up to 35km. Winning, let alone breaking the record, was in doubt according to race commentators. Haile shook off his last challenger after 35 km and showed his heart with an all out sprint on the last stretch to dip under the 2:04 barrier.

Many Ethiopians have been pressuring Haile to retire "with dignity" for the last couple of years... he has proven them all wrong by adding three more world records in that time span. He is out-running his competition, the race clock, and may be even Father Time.

Meseret Defar Gets Revenge

Meseret Defar defeated Vivian Cheruiyot in the 5,000M at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart avenging last week's defeat. It would have been a disaster had she lost. Glad to see her back on track.

The the Women's 1,500M featured to huge Beijing disappointements. In the battle of huge disappointers Maryam Yusuf Jamal defeated the enigmatic Gelete Burka.

Meseret Defeated Again

Meseret Defar was defeated by Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) in the 5,000M at the Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels. Meseret was niped at the end by Vivian Cheruiyot. Looks like Meseret is not running with a clear head and she may have lost a step. Needless to say she needs to get back on track.

Sileshi Sihine once again reminds us that he is one of the great 10,000 M runners to ever live by manhandling the field. Abebe Dinkesa a once promising runner finished
a distant 11th.

You can catch the actions at TrackShark.

Kenenisa Again

Kenenisa continued his rampage winning the 3,000 m at the Gateshead British Grand Prix in a World Leading time of 7:31.94. He has hinted that this will be his last race for the season. Despite him being in great shape and having an amazing year no world record will be set this year.

Golden League

It's back to the track for Kenenisa Bekele as he races in the Golden League meet in Zurich.

Reader Zemede has posted a link to view the race live in about 30 mins.

http://www.trackshark.com/videos/2008/goldenleague/

The race will be on at 3:35 EST 12:35 PST and 19:35 GMT.

Zemede, thanks for the link.

Update:
Kenenisa set a World Best of 12:50.18 at the 5,000M. He had overcome poor peacemaking, where he had to set the pace starting at the 5th lap. He opened up a huge gap early and kept adding to it. Look for him to go after the World Record this season.

Beijing Closure

OK. I admit I am tired of the Olympics. I am ready to move on physically and mentally.

Physically, over the past two weeks I have been transformed into a couch potato. Browsing the net and flipping TV channels. Now, instead of watching others run I need to get out and do my own running. Mentally, I am tired of thinking and talking about medals, federations, events etc..

Before I move one I wanted some sort of closure by listing the top five performances as well as the top five disappointments. I would have loved to go with a top ten list but we were kind of light depthwise.


Top Performances
1 - Tirunesh Dibaba, 10,000 M – Ran the 2nd fastest time ever and looked as if she could have run faster.
2 - Kenenissa Bekele, 5,000 M – He did most of the work from start to finish. What a magnificent kick and what a race.
3 - Kenenissa Bekele, 10,000 M – Made it look like a jog.
4 - Tirunesh Dibaba, 5,000 M – Great tactical race and nice close.
5 - Deriba Merga and Tsgaye Kebede, Marathon – It’s hard to pick among the two. Deriba was going for gold but collapsed. Who can fault him for going for gold? On the other hand, Tsegaye ran a very smart race but never really had a shot at gold.

Mentions
Jacob Jarsso , 3,000 M Steeeplechase - Finished 4th the Steeplechase beating a Kenyan. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the finals.
Zemzem Ahmed, 3,000 Steeplechase – Solid performance in the Women’s Steeplechase.
Gashaw Assfaw, Marathon– came in a solid seventh in the marathon.

Disappointing Performances
1 - Gete Wami and Berhane Adere, Marathon – The two did not come to run. They crashed out of the race early and it wasn’t even a very hot day and the pace wasn't fast when they crashed. What a waste!
2- Mestawat Tufa, 10,000 M– Went from a medal conteder to a DNF. Gives up easy. Exited the race when she lost contact with the lead pack. She should hire Shalene Flanigan to coach her on the art of catching runners form behind.
3 - Gelete Burka, 1,500 M– Gold favorite did not even make it to the finals. Enough said.
4 - Haile Gebreselassie, 10,000 M – Would have been better off running the marathon. At least he had a chance to medal in the marathon. I wonder what he though when Deriab was up there with the leaders? For sure Haile thinks he is better thanDeriba. What would Haile have been able to do? We will never know. With the emergence of young runners like Deriba, Tsegaye and others Haile is not a lock to make the Olympic team in 2012. Actually odds are against Haile making the team. Beijing was not a great way to go out.
5 - Nahom Mesfin and Roba Gary, 3,000 M Steeplechase – These two should have been in the steeplechase final. Instead they bombed out early.

Mentions
Mekdes Bekele, 3,000 M Steeplechase :- Should have been in the Steeplechase finals but decided to chill early.
Ejigayehu Dibaba, 10,000 M - How she has fallen! From Olympic silver to mid-pack runner. She has talent but she does not seem to care. She still makes good money though.
Mulugeta Wondimu and Deresse Mekonnen, 1,500 M – huge step back for the men’s 1,500M.
Sileshi Sihine, 10,000 M – Got slaughtered by Kenenisa once again. Disappointment is that he just sat there and got slaughtered. You would think he would get tired of losing and change something to mount a challenge. He did not bother. Does the same thing gets the same results. It looks like he as accepted being second as his fate in life.
Meseret Defar, 5,000 – Never gave us the battle we expected but gave it a good run. Should have challenged for silver harder once chance for gold was gone.


This is what I have. Your thoughts?

The Future of Roohca

We are ordinary guys. We found that we conversed about running a lot. We started this blog because we love running. We feel very lucky that people read our blog and we feel privileged that we can share our thoughts with you.

When we started this blog we just wanted to write. We never had a firm plan so this blog has exceeded our expectations. The more we blog the more we run about running. We also find more and more things to blog about. It has been a tremendous experience.

Now that we have been blogging for a while, we would like to take Roocha to the next level. We don’t exactly know what the next level is. We will need your help in determining what the next level is.

We know one thing for sure. For Roocha go get to the next level it needs to be democratized. We would like to share this blog with you if you are able and willing to contribute. You can be any type of contributor: regular contributor, occasional contributor, race report contributor, one-off contributor etc… All we ask is that you have a passion for running. To become a contributor send an email to contribute@roocha.net.

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What is missing? What should we add? What should we change? What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? Where should we take this thing ?

If You Are Not Growing You Are Dying

With the Olympic over, the flag wavers are out declaring Ethiopia had a magnificent Olympic. Excuse me but are we watching the same Olympic? Perhaps we are living in an era of low expectations? Perhaps it’s in our nature to flag wave at every opportunity without exploring the underlying reality.

Magnificent when your only overachiever is Tsegaye Kebede, a bronze medalist? Magnificent when you don't even meet your own goal of ten medals? Sorry to burst some bubbles but the "magnificent" moments were created by two – get this - two athletes. Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele! Team Ethiopia did not have a magnificent Olympic. These two athletes had a magnificent Olympic.

Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele were asked to double out of desperation. They skewed the medal count and covered up the poor development, selection and preparation by the Federation. Ethiopian athletics is in decline. Just take a look at the list of Kenyan athletes that earned a medal next to the list of Ethiopians.

Kenya	Ethiopia
Nancy Lagat Brimin Kipruto Wilfred Bungei Pamela Jelimo Samuel Wanjiru Asbel Kiprop Eunice Jepkorir Eliud Kipchoge Janeth Jepkosgei Catherine Ndereba Micah Kogo Richard Mateelong Edwin Soi Alfred Yego	Kenenisa Bekele Tirunesh Dibaba Sileshi Sihine Meseret Defar Tsegaye Kebede

Mighty thin for a county that has twice the population of Kenya!


Obsession with sweeping...

In Ethiopia, there is a bizarre obsession with sweeping events. Winning multiple medals in any event is very hard. The best way to increase medal counts is to the expand into new events. Spending time and energy trying to sweep is more expensive than developing medal contenders in the 800 M and 1,500M. Kenyan will always have at least two medal contenders in the 10,000 and 5,000.

A sweep does not happen often. If it does, it can't happen at every Olympic. You can't design successful programs that sweep races. The odds are against sweeps. This wrong headed obsession with sweeps has made the Federation lazy. Instead of developing athletes in middle distance events the Federation dreams of multiple medals in a few events.

Ethiopia has the talent base (if developed) to compete in races 800M and further. In Beijing, Kenya for instance, contested the men’s 400M and won gold in both the Men’s and Women’s 800M while Ethiopia did not even have enough runners to fill its slot of 1,500 M Women’s runners. Take a look at how diverse Kenya’s medal haul was compared to Ethiopia’s.




There is no guarantee that the next Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba will be Ethiopian. They could be Kenyan. What would we do then?

We need to stop obsessing about sweeps and double medals. Diversification is needed to increase medal counts.

Lack of breakthroughs...

Sydney was high mark for Ethiopian Athletics. Sydney was remarkable because several unknown athletes stepping up to win gold. Million Wolde surprised even himself by winning the men’s 5,000M. Gezahegn Abera and Tesfaye Tola came out of nowhere to win two medals in the marathon. Everyone had assumed Derartu was on her last legs when she won gold.

Almost every other Olympic Ethiopia participated in has had a surprise. Abebe Bikila, Mamo Wolde, Miruts Yifter, Derartu Tulu, Fatuma Roba and Meseret Defar produced unexpected results.

So who stepped up in Beijing? Tesegaye Kebded, Deriba Merga, Zemzem Ahmed and Yakob Jarso - barely. None of them had a true breakthrough.


Time to change

Kenyan athletics had been in decline since 1988. In Sydney the Kenyan Athletic Federation was stung by Ethiopia’s success and recognized something was amiss. They started changing course. They revised the selection process and modified their preparation. They kept working on it in Athens and in Beijing we saw the results of the changes. Fourteen medals!

They were smart. They did not waste time trying to reclaim the 10,000M and 5,000M medals. Instead they strengthened their 1,500 M and 800M programs while at the same time working to improve in the long distance events. Notice how Kenya had fielded some excellent talent in the 5,000 M and 10,000M. From Athens to Beijing they went from winning one gold medal to winning five gold medals and doubling their medal totals. Kenya now has a foundation on which they can continue to build. Ethiopia on the other hand seems stuck since Sydney with no medal growth.




The number of medals won can be misleading. The number of individuals that produce these medals is a good indicator of how good a country is at developing athletes. From the chart below Ethiopia actually took a step back while Kenya has made great leaps.

Grow or die

There is a mantra that says if you are not growing you are dying. The world is catching up. One just needs to look no further than the performance of Shalane Flanagan who finished 3rd in the 10,000M. She beat two Ethiopian favorites.

Had we not had Tirunesh Dibaba, Turkey would have had a double gold medalist. Turkey, Bahrain, Spain and Israel fielded Ethiopian-born runners. Look for many more Ethiopian-born runners to run for their new countries. Look for these Ethiopian-born to fight Ethiopia for medals.

Life is not getting easier.

Accountability

Now that the Ethiopian Athletics Federation failed to achieve its own goals it’s time that someone is held accountable. Responsibility must be taken and changes made.

I suspect that is not going to happen. Ethiopian Politicians, who themselves have never been held accountable and therefore clueless when it comes to accountability will spin the "success of Beijing" till we drop from dizziness. No one will be held accountable because no one wants to admit there are problems. Meanwhile the same people will continue doing the same things and we will continue getting worse as others get better.

Decline can come fast. One only needs to look at the decline of football in Ethiopia. I hope that is not in the future of athletics.

London Calling

It's all over! Next stop is London. What can we look forward to?

Men's Marathon: Who hit the wall?

So we know Deriba Merga hit the wall. Who else hit the wall?



Yonas Kifle hit the wall real bad. Martin Lel looked bad between 30km and 35km. Tsegaye Kebede was fading when he caught Deriba Merga who was fading even faster.

The chart shows that Samuel Wanjiru was unbeatable. Gashaw Asfaw finished strong but he was too far behind. A few runners increased pace over the last 10K. The only runner to run the second-half faster was 15th place finisher Ruggero Pertile of Italy.