ADDIS ABABA – With only 53 days to go until the start of the Doha 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships, the news of the Ethiopian participants are flowing one after the other. Doha 2019 is set to take place in Qatar from 27 September to 6 October.
With Ethiopian men’s athletes Hagos Gebrehiwot, Selemon Barega and Yomif Kejelcha are at the center of attention in 5,000 and 10,000 meters the Ethiopian women representatives are coming to the fore.
Almaz Ayana was quoted as saying she is physically and mentally in good shape to defend her title in Doha. “I am not fully recovered from my ankle injury but slowly I am doing fine,” she said. Though she is optimistic to go to Doha the campaign is no so easy, in her view.
Though it is time and again said that the ability to overcome challenges appears to be part of Almaz Ayana’s DNA, this time it looks hard to easily overcome her deficiency.
In the past the road to victory for her was rather simple. As she puts it by working hard to climb to the summit of global distance running, to winning in the 10,000m on her season’s debut at the IAAF World Championships London 2017, no challenge appears to be beyond her capability. She manages to easily win the world and Olympic 10,000m champion with relatively minor challenges.
Yet the latest task to return to full fitness after undergoing surgery on both knees is, Almaz’s greatest obstacle. What she hopes is a successful defense of her world 10,000m title in Doha on 28 September, 2019.
She said when asked about her background, “When I started racing there was a girl at my school who always finished number one. I was afraid of that girl but somebody told me that I have to beat her. I listened to that person, beat that girl and later joined a project in my local area.”
Encouraged by how hard work could reap rewards, she moved to Addis Ababa and joined the Defence Force Club. A coach there advised her to try the steeplechase and she quickly advanced to the international level. In 2010 she placed fifth in the steeplechase at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Moncton, Canada and later that year she shattered the world U20 record with a stunning 9:22.51 for third in Brussels.
Inspired by listening to the feats of Ethiopian distance running legend Tirunesh Dibaba on the radio, Almaz dreamed of starring in another event.
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.
“I always wanted to be a 5,000m athlete,” she says after winning at the World Championship in Beijing. She started running the 10,000m for the first time at the Rio Olympics. In her debut she won gold medal with the Olympic record in 2016 at Rio.
She said that 2013 was a turning point in athletics career. Getting training twice a day for six days a week and combining energy-sapping long runs with punishing speed session, Almaz earned 5,000m bronze behind her compatriot Meseret Defar at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
Then at the World Championships in Beijing later that year, a blistering final 3,000m of 8:19 enabled Almaz to quell the considerable threat of compatriot Genzebe Dibaba to bank 5,000m gold inside the crucible of the Bird’s Nest Stadium.
This time though she recovered the fear remains. “I was afraid to run because I was scared of how my knees would respond,” she said. “I didn’t know if I would feel pain,” adding “The doctor did not give a recovery percentage but he said you will shortly recover,” explains Almaz, who was reassured by his words. “I actually felt happy after the operation because I knew at least the problem had been fixed.”
The others tough contenders in the women’s event in Doha are likely to be Genzebe Dibaba and Letesenbet Gidey. Genzebe Dibaba has illustrated that she’s once again nearing her form of 2015, the year when she broke the world 1,500m record and later raced to victory at the World Championships.
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.
The Ethiopian Herald August 6/2019
