Dubai: With less than a week to go before the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, Olympic legend and Ethiopian superstar Kenenisa Bekele who is making his debut here, is leaving nothing to chance for the January 23 event.
Since signing up to run the world’s richest marathon as ambassador of the Dubai Holding Wellness Programme, the three-time Olympic gold medallist has been training for hours every day in and around his home city of Addis Ababa.
And Kenenisa under the watchful eye of coach Renato Canova is looking for at least a new personal best despite the presence of many of the world’s greatest marathon runners in Dubai.
“There will certainly be at least ten to 15 athletes to watch,” he said. “Fellow Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa has already won both the Boston Marathon and the Dubai Marathon, so he has shown himself to be a very strong athlete with great experience.”
Although the Dubai race will be only the third marathon on Kenenisa’s CV, his reputation and achievements mean the eyes of the athletics world will be on him when he adds the flat course of Dubai to his two marathon experiences of Paris and Chicago.
In Paris, he won on his marathon debut with a course record and current personal best of 2:05.04 — a time that would have earned him second place in last year’s Dubai Marathon.
With the kind of finishing speed at the end of a track race that ensures he remains a world record holder at both 5,000 and 10,000 metres, Bekele is sure of a hero’s welcome in Dubai next week.
“I just want to go step-by-step in my marathon career,” he said. “Dubai will be a very important race for me in terms of my personal best and I have already learnt from racing in Paris and Chicago. But, despite my achievements on the track and cross-country, I still have relatively little experience at the marathon distance.”
Over the past few months, the 32-year-old has spent around four hours a day training.
“I’ve certainly worked hard with no time off during the holiday period,” said Kenenisa, a man with 16 World Championship titles to his name. “I’m definitely ready for Dubai and looking forward to seeing everyone at the start line. I’ve heard so much about the course and the conditions — now is the time to see it for myself.”
Organisers expect the grandstands to be packed with fans — especially from Ethiopia — keen to watch in the flesh an athlete that is to distance running what Usain Bolt is to sprinting.
“I expect the grandstands to be full of singing Ethiopian fans by the time the runners take to the course at 7am,” said event director Peter Connerton.
“It’s an incredible field with more than 20 men who have all run under 2:10 for the marathon. Kenenisa has already had a better start to his marathon career than other legends who have made the step up — including Paul Tergat and our three-time winner Haile Gebrselassie — so his participation here in Dubai has really caught the sport’s attention.”
