ADDIS ABABA – With only 67 days to go until the start of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, action is heating up across the global athletics landscape, promising a full slate of thrilling competition when the sporting world’s attention turns to the Qatari capital from 27 September to 6 October.
With Ethiopian athletes, at the center of attention, the men’s 10, 000 meters Hengelo winner Hagos Gebrehiwot among the most eagerly-awaited runner to be seen. The 2017 world athlete of the year Ethiopian Almaz Ayana is highly likely to be sidelined with an ankle injury. She was sidelined for much of 2018, and is now making minor progress after showing up in Diamond League 3000m race.
On the women’s side, Genzebe Dibaba has illustrated that she’s once again nearing her form of 2015, the year when she broke the world 1500m record and later raced to victory at the World Championships. She’s collected victories in Rome and Rabat clocking 3:56.28 and 3:55.47, respectively, two of the three fastest times of the year.
Meanwhile, twelve days after his lap-counting error in the 5000m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Hagos Gebrhiwot made no mistakes in
Hengelo on Wednesday to win the men’s 10,000m in a world-leading time of 26 minutes and 48.95 seconds.
The raceserves as the official Ethiopian trial for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019. Based on the Hengelo results, Ethiopia will field two strong trios for the men’s and women’s 10,000m in Doha.
In a race of staggering quality – the best ever in terms of depth for one nation – the top six men finished inside 27 minutes with the first three finishing inside 26:50.
The women’s 10,000m, won by Letesenbet Gidey, was of a similarly high standard with the first 10 women – nine of whom are from Ethiopia – finishing inside 31:00.
In the Netherlands city of Hengelo,Hagos’s compatriot Selemon Baregaat a time of 26: 49.46 and Yomif Kejelcha clocking 26: 49.99 came out second and third, in the order of that. This was the first test for Yomif in 10, 000m.
The IAAF has released the entry standards for the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, which will take place September 28 through October 6, 2019.
For the 10,000m, race walks, relays and combined events, the qualifying period spans from March 7, 2018 to September 6, 2019. For all other events, the qualifying window is September 7, 2018 to September 6, 2019.
The IAAF initially intended to implement its “World Rankings” criteria for the first time for the 2019 season, which would’ve likely made the qualifying standards much more difficult than in the past as the governing body sought to incentivize athletes to compete at events that would affect their ranking.
However, after much bewilderment and head-scratching from the athletics community on the proposed system, the IAAF announced on November 11 that it would return to the traditional qualification system for the upcoming season.
The Ethiopian Herald July 23/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
