By Tedla Asfaw
The Beijing Bird’s Nest was rattled tonight and the push and shove seemed an incentive for Ethiopian athletes to let the birds fly. Into the 14th minutes of the 5,000m it all became obvious who are going to be the winners and the question was who will conquer Beijing and the battle for gold started… continue reading below the video >>
Our Tirunesh/Tiruye Dibaba controlled and led the charge and both Elvan Abeylegesse/Hewan an Ethiopian representing Turkish and the defending Olympic champ Meseret/Mesi Defar were almost together on the final one hundred meters and Tiruye took the lead followed by Mesi and finally no one was behind Tiruye and she won and became the first female athlete to double both the 5,000m and 10,000m in Olympics. By doing so she has set high the bar for other Ethiopian female athletes.
Mesi won the bronze and no doubt the kick and shove she got before the completion of the race was a factor. You can see that at the end of the race the pain on her face. But make no mistake this day was Tiruye’s.
Her win is another inspiration for our Keneisa/Kenu Bekele tomorrow to do the same and be in a special group of athletes who won gold in 5,000m and 10,000m in Olympics, one of which is Miruts Yefter at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
Kenu’s attempt for the first time in Athens Olympics in 2004 fell short and I have no doubt he will crack the Bird’s Nest in Beijing tomorrow night. The whole world is going to see not only double victory, he could set a new Olympics record like he did in the 10,000-meter.
Who will forget Tiruye receiving a huge Ethiopian flag from Ethiopian crowd after the race and
Elvan/Hewan staring at her birth country joyous crowd waving Ethiopian Flag and no one was fast enough to hand her a Turkish Flag and that was the moment my heart was broken.
What did Elvan/Hewan felt in that moment? No one can be sure that but her facial expression proved beyond any doubt that deep inside her if all should start again she will prefer to win a medal for her birth country and get that huge celebration by carrying Ethiopian Flag and join Tiruye and Messi as the jewels of Ethiopia and Africa.