🏃 Letesenbet Gidey was the pre-race favorite and with the finishing line in sight it seemed as if the Ethiopian was to win gold with ease. But meters from the tape the 24-year-old fell, and in a blink of an eye, victory was dramatically gone.
In a spectacular conclusion to the women’s race at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, Saturday, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet overhauled Gidey with an impressive final kick to win the title.
With the finishing line looming, Gidey looked over her shoulder and would have sensed Chebet, the world 5000m silver medalist, sprinting towards her. It was as the Kenyan was on her shoulder that Gidey lost her footing on the uneven ground.
To make matters worse for Gidey, the reigning 10,000m world champion, she was disqualified for outside assistance after a supporter reportedly jumped the fence to assist her.
In an Instagram post, the athlete later said: “I’m doing well. Thank you for all the messages. I’ll be back. Today was a good race with a sad ending for me. Let’s take the good forward to the future.”
Olympic great Michael Johnson tweeted: “Wow! Heartbreaking for Letesenbet at World Cross Country Champs. Literally just meters from the tape!”
😈 The Kenyan ‘Winner’ made a disgusting and ignorant statement…..I, I, I kegna, kegna!
Letesenbet holds the current world records for the 5000 metres, 10,000 metres, and half marathon, which she set in October 2020, June 2021 and October 2021, respectively. She is only the second athlete after Ingrid Kristiansen from 1989–1991 to hold them simultaneously.[3] Her record in the half marathon, making Letesenbet the first debutante to set a world record in the event, broke previous mark by more than a minute.[4][5] She also holds the world best in the 15 km road race, which was also an over one-minute improvement. Letesenbet became the first woman to break the 64 and 63-minute barriers in the half marathon and the 45-minute barrier in the 15 km. She recorded the fastest women’s marathon debut in history at the 2022 Valencia Marathon, placing her sixth on the respective world all-time list.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on June 18, 2015
“As part of his appeal, Farah’s agent Ricky Simms submitted video evidence filmed in Farah’s house in which he tried to show that it was difficult to hear the doorbell from his client’s bedroom. UK Anti-Doping lawyers dismissed it as evidence.” LOL!
–- Farah’s first missed test appears to have occurred in early 2010, six months before he broke David Moorcroft’s British 5,000m record
–- The second test seems to have occurred once Farah had started working with Salazar, taking place at Farah’s home in Teddington
–- Farah contested it by appealing to the UK Anti-Doping Agency on the basis that he claimed he did not hear his doorbell
–- With the Olympics looming, Salazar warned Farah on May 5 2011: ‘If you miss another test, they will hang you’
–- Farah won gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m at London 2012
Mo Farah missed two drugs tests a year before the London 2012 Olympics, Sportsmail can reveal.
At a time when the British distance runner’s controversial American coach Alberto Salazar and training partner Galen Rupp are facing a series of allegations, Farah’s own problems with the doping authorities reached a peak only a few months after he started training under Salazar in February 2011. The two missed tests put his participation at the 2012 Olympics, where he won two gold medals, at risk.
UK anti-doping rules state an athlete who misses three tests in any 12-month period (down from 18 months since 2013) can face up to a four-year ban. Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu was suspended for 12 months in 2006 after missing three tests and falling foul of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ‘whereabouts’ system, which forces athletes to pick an exact location for one hour every day in case they are needed for testing.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on March 8, 2015
As Tirunesh Dibaba takes the track, it’s hard to reconcile her baby face and slight build with her fierce reputation. She’s the marquee distance runner at the 2006 Reebok Boston Indoor Games, a track meet known for distance races, and everyone in the packed Reggie Lewis Center is expecting her to break her own world record. Yet everything about her appearance suggests that she is no more than a girl.
Her older sister Ejegayehu, who is also racing, has braided Tirunesh’s hair and painted her fingernails with playful black and white designs. As the announcer introduces each athlete, Tirunesh takes the steam out of the mounting excitement by accidentally acknowledging the cheers meant for her sister. By the time the confusion is over, she’s taken the start line, having missed out on the final, dramatic introduction. Crouched, waiting for the start, she is dwarfed by the other competitors. Once the gun fires, though, she quickly shows why she was the top distance runner in the world last year.
Tirunesh runs upright, her straight back giving the illusion that she’s taller than 5 feet, 1 inch. Her arms pump furiously across her body while her legs swing back in long, arcing kicks. She explodes forward with each stride, her hips moving on a level plane with no wasted up-and-down motion. Whether she masks her labor or doesn’t really labor at all is hard to discern, for she always seems to have another gear.
Eventually, though, the rabbits drop out and Tirunesh’s record pace begins to slow. Her forehead bears only the slightest hint of sweat as she breaks the tape in 14:35.46, the second fastest indoor 5,000m ever.
Later in the evening Tirunesh returns to the track to watch her boyfriend, Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine, in the men’s two-mile. Bundled in her sweats, she blends into the crowd. She shows no emotion as the race unfolds until, on the final lap, she can’t contain her nerves any longer. Suddenly the woman who was circling the track with such confidence two hours earlier is bouncing up and down like a little girl. Grasping the sides of her head anxiously, she peeks out between her arms to watch as Sihine strains for the finish, coming up just short of victory.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on August 18, 2013
Our girls are truly writing history, even if the media attention is somewhere else. RESPECT!
Lelisa Desisa, Tadesse Tola, Almaz Ayana, Sofia Assefa, Hagos Gebrhiwet, congratulations to you all!
Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich switching sides — running in a zig-zag pattern to irritate Lelisa, the Boston Marathon winner. Very Rude! In sports like Motorsport Kiprotich would have been disqualified.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 24, 2012
Sports fans all over the world have recently witnessed an increasing number of spectacular doping cases, leading to considerable frustration in the public. However, our knowledge regarding the prevalence of doping is still quite limited, leading some people to speculate that (nearly) all professional athletes are doped and possibly even have to be doped to be good enough to compete successfully in highly selective tournaments.
How about East African athletes?
A well-known German sports journalist claims to have found evidence of widespread doping by traveling undercover to Kenya, posing as sports agent. According to him, doping is common in Kenya, among locals, but also among elite foreign athletes who travel there to train. One athlete mentioned by name is Pamela Jelimo, although he can only link her to a doctor who offered to perform blood doping, and cannot present at the moment a direct proof of her being doped.
Here is an interview with Hajo Seppelt on German public radio:
My Note: I don’t know whether there is some truth to the above claim – or it simply could be the usual European jealousy and disappointment in respect to their inferior status in long-distance running. Well, Europeans may either join East Africans in chewing the mysterious plant, “Khat”, or they have to prohibit it. In any case, it was very surprising for Kenyan athletes, specially the female ones to dominate and outperform Ethiopians during the last World Athletics Championships in South Korea.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 4, 2009
“Usain Bolt is a man for the summer but Kenenisa Bekele is a man for all seasons”
While Kenenisa is making his preparation to win the 5000m at the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme meeting in Brussels this evening, he has expressed his willingness to race against Jamaica-sprinter, Usain Bolt, in a distance between 600 – 800 meters.
I say, Wooow to it! This would be the best athletic event of all time. This sort of thing never happened before. A great idea! 600m race through a main city high street would capture the imagination of the viewing public. Kids races, street party- lets make a day of it. This is what athletics should be about- no timings- just a RACE. ..
I’d expect a 600m race to be very close if Bekele is that quick! And have no reason to doubt that he is as anyone who can run 52-54 sec at the end of 5000m has to be pretty sharp.
Bolt is fast, but ain’t the fastest man on Earth. He’s the fastest man on Earth… over pretty much anything under 400 metres.
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While Kenenisa is making his preparation to win the 5000m at the 
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