Sports
One of the great athletics rivalries of all time will be renewed at Paris 2024 after Kenenisa Bekele was named in Ethiopia’s marathon squad.
The 41-year-old is a three-time Olympic champion over 5,000m and 10,000m but has not appeared at the Games since London 2012, when he finished fourth over the longer distance.
However, his second-placed finish in the London Marathon last month means Bekele will come up against Kenyan great Eliud Kipchoge on 10 August.
Former marathon world record holder Kipchoge, 39, is aiming to become the first person to win three successive Olympic marathons after his victories at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
His rivalry with Bekele stretches all the way back to their first meeting in a final, also in Paris, at the 2003 World Championships.
On that occasion Kipchoge took gold in the 5,000m, with Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in second place and Bekele taking bronze.
A year later at the Olympics in Athens, Kipchoge would have to settle for bronze over the same distance as Bekele took silver behind El Guerrouj, with the Ethiopian then clinching gold over 10,000m gold.
Four years on at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Bekele would again get the better of Kipchoge at the Games as the pair finished first and second in the 5,000m and Bekele defended his 10,000m title.
Kipchoge has established himself as an all-time great since switching to marathon-running in 2013, winning 11 major races alongside his two Olympic gold medals.
Bekele produced the sixth-fastest debut over 26.2 miles (42.16km) when he made a winning marathon debut in Paris in April 2014, but his career since then has been hampered by injuries.
Now, 21 years on from their first battle in the French capital, this could be the final time Bekele and Kipchoge go head-to-head. (BBC Africa Sports)
F.A
May 18, 2024
Tags: Bekele Kipchoge
