Kenenisa Bekele (born June 13, 1982, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian distance runner who holds the world records in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres. He is the reigning two-time Olympic champion over 10,000 metres and the most accomplished runner in IAAF World Cross Country Championships history, with six long (12K) course and five short (4K) course titles.He is the older brother of Tariku Bekele, also an accomplished distance runner.
Bekele was born in 1982 at Bekoji, in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, the same town as the Dibaba sisters; Ejegayehu, Tirunesh and Genzebe, and their cousin Derartu Tulu.
For five years in a row, from 2002 through 2006, he took both short (4K) and long (12K) races at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, a feat no other runner has accomplished even once. In 2004, he broke the world records for the indoor 5,000 m, outdoor 5,000 m and outdoor 10,000 m.
Bekele is renowned for his ability to accelerate very quickly at the end of a long distance race; in Oslo in June 2003, Bekele chased after Kenyan Abraham Chebii and ran a 54.64 final 400 to win the race in 12:52.26. Again in Lausanne on July 1, 2003, Bekele recorded a 200 m segment during the last lap in 24 seconds and a 100 m section in 11.xx seconds to run a 52.63 final lap.
Bekele has faced his mentor Haile Gebrselassie once in road competition, once in cross country, and five times on the track. Gebrselassie defeated Bekele on the track in the 2000 Nurnberg 5,000 metres, the 2001 Great Ethiopian Run 10 km, and the Cross de l’Acier in December of 2001, but lost to Bekele in Hengelo 2003 over 10,000 m (26:53 to 26:54), Rome 2003 over 5000 m (12:57 to 13:00), Paris 2003 World Championships over 10,000 m (26:49 to 26:50), and Athens 2004 Olympic Games (27:05 to 27:27).
He won the gold medal in the 10,000 m and the silver in the 5,000 m at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
In 2004 August 20, in the 10,000 m final, three Ethiopians attempted to duplicate their 2003 World Championships sweep. Since Haile Gebrselassie had been suffering from inflammation on his Achilles tendon for five weeks before he came to Athens, Bekele and Sileshi Sihine slowed the race down to give him a chance of a medal, putting their own victory in jeopardy. However Gebrselassie was dropped as Bekele and Sihine upped the pace to shake off other leading competitors, Zersenay Tadese and Boniface Kiprop Toroitich. Bekele let Sihine lead him out and then hit the front with 500 m to go, sprinting away with the last lap in 53.02 seconds and won the race with a new Olympics record 27:05.10. Sileshi Sihine finished 2nd (27:09.39), Eritrean Zersenay Tadese 3rd (27:22.57), Boniface Kiprop Toroitich from Uganda 4th (27:25.48), the defending champion Haile Gebrselassie 5th (27:27.70).[1][2][3]
Eight days later, in 2004 August 28, in the 5000 m final, Bekele confronted Hicham El Guerrouj, the 1500 m Olympics winner, and Eliud Kipchoge, the 5000 m World champion. At the 5000 m of 2003 World Championships of the previous year, Kipchoge, El Guerrouj and Bekele were the gold, silver and bronze medalists respectively. Even though Bekele was the holder of the 5000 m world record, at the Olympics he finished 2nd, being outkicked by El Guerrouj with 50 m to go and narrowly failed to win the Olympics 5000 m/10000 m double. El Guerrouj won a double over 1500 m and 5000 m.[4]
Afterwards an Ethiopian singer song writer Teddy Afro released a famous music video, Tarik Teserra (”History was Made”), in honor of world record holder and 2004 Olympic gold medalist, Kenenisa Bekele.[5] Bekele ended the year ranked as 2004 Man of the year by Track & Field News magazine: he had broken the indoor world record for 5,000 metres (12:49.60), the outdoor world record for 5,000 metres (12:37.35), won both the short course (4k) and long course (12K) races for the third year in a row at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, broken the world record for 10,000 metres (26:20.31), and broken the Olympic record in winning the gold medal in the men’s 10,000 metres (27:05.10), while also winning two 3,000 metre races and the Ethiopian Championship for 5,000 metres for good measure. (Interestingly, every world and Olympic record Bekele broke that year had been set by Haile Gebrselassie.)
On August 17, 2008 Bekele won gold in the 10,000m finals with a time of 27:01.17, setting a new Olympic Record in the process. As in his 2004 gold medal-winning performance over the same distance, he ran the final 400 metres in 53 seconds to leave his competitors behind
* 5,000 m indoor world record 12:49.60 (Birmingham, on February 20, 2004)
* 5,000 m world record 12:37.35 (Hengelo, on May 31, 2004)
* 10,000 m world record 26:17.53 (Brussels, on August 26, 2005, breaking his previous record of 26:20.31 from June 8, 2004)
* 2,000 m indoor world record 4:49.99 (Birmingham, on February 17, 2007)
* 2 mile indoor world best 8:04.35 (Birmingham, on February 16, 2008)
