A world that runs is a happy world
Eliud Kipchoge
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"Look, there's Bekele," a father shouts to his son.
And Kenenisa Bekele (41) raises his arms and greets the parish, he greets like a movie star or like a rock band leader.
And the audience applauds him.
Everyone applauds him, thousands of people watch him, even Joshua Cheptegei (27), the new chief of the tribe in the background, the Ugandan who has taken the records of 5,000 and 10,000 from Bekele, the Ethiopian, and who now debuts as a marathoner.
We will experience the event this Sunday, at the Valencia marathon, both Bekele and Cheptegei will compete there, and that is why I am here now, sitting before the icons, contemplating them on stage, in La Placeta at ExpoDeporte in Valencia.
The father tells his son that Bekele plays in the league of legends, but Bekele struggles to hold on to the past.
I am referring to those years of glory, the first of this 21st century, when the Ethiopian who floated in tartan and mud won everything at all distances on the track, the 3,000, the 5,000, the 10,000, come world records and Olympic titles, come world cross country titles (up to eleven, between the short and long race), before seeing how the Achilles tendons were primed with his style.
Well, all that floating through mud and tartan has a price.
–If it hadn't been for those injuries… –Bekele tells me when we talk aside.
Kenenisa Bekele is small and skinny like me and has very big eyes and is approachable in his ways, I would never say that this simple guy, previously opaque to the press, today a family man, businessman, millionaire in Africa, a 41-year-old dreamer who continues to dream like a child, that's who he is.
Bekele is a unique athlete in its history and that is why Carlos Domingo, master of ceremonies at ExpoDeporte, when he was proceeding to present the myth, spent a while singing his resume and then stopped and said:
–The thing is, if I have to list his entire record, I will take up the entire press conference.
(...)
When we chat alone, I ask Bekele:
–What would have happened if those injuries to the tendons had not appeared?
–On the track, my career was incomplete (that's what the triple Olympic champion who held the world records of 5,000 and 10,000 tells me...). I couldn't fly as much as I could. Think that, at 28 years old, I had to stop. It happened after that 2009 World Cup in Berlin, when I did another double (he won the 5,000 and the 10,000). My tendons hurt, and the pain was moving to other areas. They started to climb my hips, they interrupted me. I think that, without them, I could have gone even faster. And I'll tell you something else.
–¿...?
–I'm not happy about how my records have been taken away from me. Technology doesn't help me.
–What do you mean?
–I am referring to the colored light that accompanies the runner seeking a record, that halo that advances at his side on the ring of the track (this is how Cheptegei flew towards the records of 5,000 and 10,000). World Athletics should establish a double list, that of human records, like mine, and that of technological records, like those that are being surpassed now. Not to mention the sneakers.
–The magic slippers?
–They have a carbon plate on the insole. Do you know what that is? On them you gain one second per lap. One second per lap! Now, calculate what my mark in 10,000 would be if I had had them at my best.
(In 2005, Bekele managed to record 26m17s53; if we take away one second per lap we get an astonishing 25m52s53; today, Cheptegei's world record is 26m11s00...).
–And if you want, we also talk about what I'm seeing in the marathon –he adds.
And here I ask you:
–How do you see yourself for this Sunday's race in Valencia?
–I have been preparing it, I assure you. But I have lost three months due to injuries, weighed down after the London marathon, and I estimate that I have reached my 80%. This time don't expect any feats from me.
(Currently, Bekele has the third best time in history, with 2h01m41s).
