If you can’t join them, beat them. Kenenisa Bekele, a living legend in athletics but denied the mainstream appeal of Usain Bolt, says he is serious about taking on the sport’s megastar in the middle ground, but denied the move was motivated by jealousy.
Bekele is the 5,000 and 10,000metres king and Bolt the equivalent over 100 and 200metres, so the distance would have to be unfamiliar to both. However, Bekele said that any contest would not be inspired by envy of Bolt’s status as one of the sport’s few household names. “In my eyes it is correct that Usain gets that much more attention because what he did [at the Olympics and World Championships] was unique,” Bekele said. “He not only won two golds but he broke two world records as well.”
Nevertheless, the Ethiopian would like to line up against the Jamaican. “If Usain agrees and if someone wants to organise this, I am ready,” he said. “I need 800metres, maybe 700.”
Bolt has said: “I think I am pretty good at 600metres.” His agent, Ricky Simms, sounded less keen last night when he told The Times that it was unlikely Bolt would run farther than 200metres next year. “Maybe 250,” he added.
It sounds fanciful, but Bolt traditionally starts his season over 400metres and Glen Mills, his coach, wants him to step up to that distance one day. Whatever the gimmicky nature of a one-off race, interest would be huge. Bolt is the crossover star and arguably saviour of track and field, whereas Bekele has dominated long-distance events, winning three Olympic and five world titles to go with 11 World Cross Country Championship crowns.
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When it comes to dominant track stars, Bolt and Bekele are the long and short of it and, with the former reportedly receiving $500,000 (about £300,000) for running in South Korea this month, the showdown could be one of the richest in history.
Jos Hermens, Bekele’s manager, was seeking a meeting with Simms at last night’s Golden League meeting in Brussels. Any clash would recall the ill-fated match-up between Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson, the 100 and 200metres world record-holders respectively at the time, over 150metres in Toronto in 1997. The title of “world’s fastest man” and $2million was at stake, but it ended in anticlimax when Johnson pulled up injured.
Bekele, one of three athletes competing for the Golden League’s $1million jackpot last night, said that he is not tempted to run at the World Half-Marathon Championship in Birmingham next month. However, he reiterated his goal to step up to the marathon, pitting him against another legend, Haile Gebrselassie, a compatriot.
Tyson Gay will have surgery on a groin injury after returning to the United States from Brussels.