Run to Win

Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie, and Paul Tergat have written an open letter to IOC President Jacques Rogge in an effort to return cross country running to either the Summer or Winter Olympics. Here’s a copy of that letter:

AN OPEN LETTER to the

President of the IOC, Mr. Jacques Rogge and president of the IAAF, Mr. Lamine Diack

We the undersigned global champions and record breakers would like to invite your two highly esteemed federations to consider the re-introduction of cross country running into the Olympic Games programme, either as a summer or a winter sport.

Cross country running is of course the most natural, indeed elemental of all sports. It is a fascinating discipline whose roots are lost in the earliest history of mankind.

In the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, cross country running was so far seen for the last time with the victory of one of the greatest ever Olympians, Finland’s Paavo Nurmi.

The official report at the time noted that a combination of unseasonal hot weather and the effects of the heat of a near-by industrial chimney - yes we had global warming in those days too! - meant that the air temperature on the course was as high as 36 degrees Centigrade (96.8 Fahrenheit). As such, of the 38 starts, 23 failed to finish. The problems of 1924 were certainly unique.

So we humbly and respectfully ask, what is your opinion about returning cross country running to a future Olympic Games, either on the programme of a summer or winter celebration?

We think it would be wonderful to give the worlds best cross country runners the chance to compete in the greatest of all sporting festivals, and are hopeful of a positive response.

Yours in sport,

Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Paul Tergat

I would love to see cross country in the Olympics, as well as some event such as a 24 hour or 100 mile trail race. I think that those sorts of sports lend themselves well to not only the Olympic Spirit but also to the Olympic Marketing Machine. Right now, the only foot race off of the track is the marathon, and I would love to see some other races that took to the streets (or preferably, the fields and woods.)

Realistically, I don’t expect to see an ultra- event in the Olympics, but I could see cross country being added in 12 or 16 years or so. I certainly hope to see it, and would make it a point to watch as long as whoever is providing the coverage deigned to allow it.

(More Info: Original Letter [PDF] - Hat Tip: Runner Vision)

Haile Gebrselassie set the mark for the indoor 2 mile world record in 2003 at 8:04.69. Yesterday, Kenenisa Bekele broke that mark by 0.34 seconds in Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham to set the new 2 mile world record at 8:04.35.

“It was not easy but I knew I could do it,” Bekele said. “Paul Koech was very close, but I knew I had a fast finish in me.”

Paul Koech was right on his tail throughout the race, but Bekele dropped him in the final lap. He has now broken Gebrselassie’s 3^rd indoor record, including the 2000m and 5000m.

(Further Reading: BBC - IHT - AFP)

Last weekend it was too hot to use the computer and I was otherwise occupied, so I never summed up the articles from the previous year.

• The Complete Running Network was relaunched. My biggest complaint with my first impressions was that they had gotten rid of the running blog aggregater service, but that service returned a few months ago. The site held a launch contest, but they never announced who won.
• I gave some reasons that running takes practice just like any other sport in response to an article published at Complete Running.
• There were just shy of 300 finishers in the L/A Bridge Run, which I finally ran this year. Not surprisingly, Ethan Hemphill won both years.
• I found the “Athletes Against Doping” website, which contains a lot of information about what substances are banned in each sport and who the governing bodies are. They have put a new theme in place since last year.
• Two years ago, I explained what EPO was after the furor with Lance Armstrong brought it to attention. In more positive news, Kenenisa Bekele set the 10k world record with a time of 26:17.53.

This week last year was actually fairly eventful.

• One of my most popular articles about Lance Armstrong were published this week last year after he had to deny more doping charges (which also had a follow up article a few days later.) I also wrote a detailed article about what EPO is.
• Eric Rudolph was due to be sentenced for his bombing of the Olympic Games and a few other locations.
• The world record was broken when Kenenisa Bekele ran a 10k in 26:17.53.
• The Nike women’s marathon sold out 9 weeks ahead of the race.
• In basketball news, Huggins quit his job as coach in Cincinatti and a brawl broke out in the African Championships between Nigeria and Algeria.

There were also some random football notes, a dog that boxes like a human, and my first forays into migrating my website from b2evolution to WordPress as my publishing platform.

This week last year I was paying a lot of attention to the World Championships in Helsinki and to the latest preseason NFL news.

• In NFL news last year, Rich Gannon retired, Ty Law signed with the Jets, and Terrell Owens continued his dog and pony show.
• At the world championships in Helsinki, Kenenisa Bekele won the 10,000m, Bershawn Jackson won the 400m hurdles, and the United States took the top 4 in the 200 meters final.
• I reviewed my casio wristwatch and the book, Run Fast: How to beat your best time every time.
• Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo performed in Portland this week last year as well. My girlfriend listened to him play; I went home and played with the cat instead.

I borrowed the book from my girlfriend (who I am going to marry in about 12 hours, by the way), and I have since given her the watch. I really need to get around to reviewing my new watch that I used to replace that watch.

Kenenisa Bekele has cut about 3 seconds off his previous best to run a world record 10k in 26:17.53.

“I had tried to beat the World record (5000m) in London but the pacemakers there were not too good, and in Hengelo (10,000m)I had to compete in bad weather. Today my brother Tariku did a very good job, he was with me up to 5000m, and it is not easy to run in the front for such a long time. The weather and the pace were both perfect, so I was able to break the World record.”

The 10k has been a very fast race all around this year. Bekele has just recently won the 10k at the world championships in Helsinki, Finland at the beginning of the month.

Kenenisa Bekele won the 10,000 meter World Championship race in Helsinki, Finland. He surged through the last 200 meters to edge out teammate Sileshi Sihine by just over a half of a second, 27:08.33 to 27:08.87. Moses Mosop ran a personal best time of 27:08.96 to get third place less than a tenth of a second behind the two. USA’s Abdihakem Abdirahman placed 13th in 27:52.01.

I would have loved to have seen that race on the babble box. Does anybody know of a site where I could download a video of it? I have not been able to find one yet, and I won’t have cable TV until after the world championships are over (unfortunately).