Distance running great Kenenisa Bekele is to compete in the Great Ireland Run in Dublin on April 15, organisers said Tuesday, as part of his preparations for the London Olympics. Reigning Olympic 5,000 metres and 10,000m champion Bekele finished way down the field in the three kilometre Great Edinburgh Cross Country last month.
Bekele was one of 35 athletes suspended from international competition by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation after they failed to show up for a mandatory training camp. But the ban was rescinded just days after it was imposed and now Bekele is set to return to the city of one of his greatest triumphs.
It was 10 years ago, when aged just 19, that Bekele became the first and only male athlete ever to lift the IAAF World Cross Country long and short course titles in the same year, at Dublin's Leopardstown racecourse. And according to British former Olympic medallist Brendan Foster, of race organisers Nova International, Bekele's decision to compete in the Great Ireland Run, a 10 km event, could herald the start of a career as a marathon runner after the 2012 Games. "I was delighted when Bekele's agent Jos Hermens rang me and asked whether we could find a slot in the SPAR Great Ireland Run for him and of course there was no way I was going to say 'no' to such an outstanding legend," Foster said Tuesday.
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