ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopia’s two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie on Friday declared himself fully fit and ready for another shot at the 10,000 metres in Beijing.
The Ethiopian legend, who has been battling with calf and tendon injuries returned to training at the Addis Ababa national stadium on Friday to prepare for probably his final Games outing after winning gold medals in 1996 and 2000.
“I’m feeling very fine at the moment. I just started taking part in sprints and I’m preparing very well to take part in Beijing,” he told AFP in an interview.
Gebrselassie opted out of the marathon, in which he holds the world record of 2:04:26, for health safety reasons fearing the heavy smog in Beijing.
He concedes that the 10,000m will be a tough race considering the strong challenge from his younger compatriots, Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine and a host of Kenyans.
“The competition will be fierce”, said Gebrselassie. “It is not just Kenenisa who will mount the challenge but also several athletes from Kenya and other countries.”
Ethiopia’s best performance at the Olympics came in 2000 in Sydney where their eight-medal haul included four golds.
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FORUM | 5 Comments
Who cares about Haile G/selassie anymore, I used to have a big respect and love for him, however since he had been involving in meditation with the so called weyane puppet prof. epherem to give an upper hand for weyane by neglecting the agreement between the kinijit leaders and weyane during the release of them from kaliti weyane jail. Haile never stood to speak the truth behind this while he kept silence. So I don’t really care if haile participate for bejining since he is not going to be a loft of bread for the people who are starving and dying now. So to me a hero to the Ethiopian people means as the saying “ a friend in need means a friend in deed” so those who are ready to bring a solution by confronting weyane’s bad policy and governance are my heros to the Ethiopian people. As of now those who are organized them selves under Ginbot 7 movement are my heros who are trying to remove the worest Ethiopian enemy weyane along with the best solution to the Ethiopian people.
Bravo Ginbot 7 continue to bring the best we all are wz you…..
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July 26th, 2008 at 8:40 AM
good news. I hope he will be a medalist at Beijing Olympic.
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July 26th, 2008 at 1:46 PM
HAGOS! Leave Haile alone. He has no guns or any power to rule over woyane’s action. So it is not fair to write such a comment to him. I don’t care who you are, just try to be the best in what you do like Haile. He is our hero.
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July 26th, 2008 at 6:08 PM
Mr. Hagos, I feel your pain,but this is sport not politics. On top of that he did a lot for our country. This is not fare at all. Thanks.
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July 27th, 2008 at 7:53 PM
Dear Hagos,
please open up your eyses and see what Haile has done to Ethiopia. he has mentored a lots of Erthiopian by his usual word ‘Yichalal’. He also has contributed the country from investment point of view. However, this time we are talkking about sport. Not politics. So, please do not act like @Yergo Zimb@. Thanks.
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July 30th, 2008 at 4:45 PM