By John Mehaffey
LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) – Haile Gebrselassie, one of only three men to win the Olympic 10,000 metres title twice, has warned East African distance runners that they cannot take their current supremacy for granted.
In an interview with Reuters the 34-year-old Ethiopian said athletes from Europe, the United States and Australasia were not only adapting the training methods of the Ethiopians and Kenyans but adding the latest scientific innovations.
“Our coaches are not good enough,” Gebrselassie said. “The technology is getting stronger and stronger. We are in trouble.
“It’s not only the Ethiopians but the Kenyans. The west are starting to change the system, that’s why we have to work seriously.
“We are just using natural ways, traditional ways. All East African athletes are naturally gifted but their training is nothing special, that’s why we have to work seriously.”
Gebrselassie was speaking before the launch of a global sports programme by the international security group Group 4 Securicor (G4S) in London on Friday.
G4S, working with National Olympic Committees and leading sport bodies, has selected 14 young athletes from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, who have the potential to win medals at the 2012 London Olympics.
They include 19-year-old Kenyan Pauline Korikwiang, who won the junior women’s race at last year’s world cross country championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Gebrselassie, who switched from the track to the roads after the 2004 Athens Olympics, dropped out of this year’s London marathon and plans another in 2007, possibly in Berlin, before starting his buildup to next year’s Beijing Olympics.
As part of his preparation he will spend two months in either Europe or the United States in a climate replicating the heat and humidithy expected in Beijing.
He then hopes to finish his career by running the 2012 London Olympics marathon.
One Briton who has benefited from combining the African work ethic with western science is Paula Radcliffe, the world women’s marathon champion and record holder.
Another Briton who agrees that the Africans are beatable is Somalia-born Mo Farah, the European 5,000 metres silver medallist.
“You have to be good and you have to get that bit further,” he told Reuters recently. “Look at Paula Radcliffe. I know she has trained so hard.
“You have to have the hunger. If you get everything the easy way you don’t want it that much.”