Bekele and Tadese

Certainly was.

As was the run from Jenny Meadows earlier.

Whilst I have always been a fan of athletics in general, its not since I started running properly that you can fully appreciate what these guys do. To run at that pace just blows me away, quite simply its incredible and equally as impressive as Usain Bolt imo.

Bekele is everything to distance running that Bolt is to sprinting.

When you look at his face he never looks distressed. I'm pretty sure he's done the same sort of schedules Gebreselassie has done. Altitude is a massive factor in their training. If you train at sea level you haven't got a chance nowadays.

Nailed on to win the 5000m

Unfortunately no British runner would have beaten him if they had joined the race with 5K gone!

Pretty shocking state of affairs for distance running in this country.

Anyone else see this unlikely competitor about three quarters of the way through?

Bit out of order really, but quite funny.

I don't know, I can see him moving up to the marathon before too much longer. He's 27 now (I think) and he has absolutely nothing left to prove on the track. The temptation to have a serious crack at Haile's record might just pull him onto the roads sooner rather than later.

There's been some debate in the past about how good he might be in the marathon. Some people have suggested that he might be a bit too bulky - he is fairly muscular by the standards of elite distance runners. Personally, I think his technique is so efficient that he'll be well suited to the marathon. 

You never know - 3 years from now, we might be watching him win gold in the Olympic marathon. 

Yeah, maybe the desire to get a marathon olympic gold or the record will set the schedule a bit. Be interesting to see what he does. I've seen him at Gateshead where you are very close to the track and he looks even more muscley for real than on film.

I think the days of getting the 5000, 10000 and marathon golds in one olympic championship are gone!

On eurosport the commentors had similar sentiments as you, Aardvark, but they made the reasonable point that there is obviously loads of respect in Ethiopia for Haile.
Hence possibly Bekele may resist  fishing in the same pond for a bit longer, ie let Haile have a few more cracks at WR attempts.
I wouldn't be too surprised to see a debut autumn 2010, spring 2011 though. 3 big payday marathons to learn the event, then olympics in London?
I'm thinking april (London has deep pockets and Haile wont come back here in april), then sept/october, then jan/feb (big paydays in middle east around then, no?), then a bit more time to prepare for august olympics

Suitable, some people argue he wont be able to kick himself in the butt for 26 miles, but then people used to argue that Haile's bouncy style would never translate to the marathon either.

Kudos for Tadesse on that race, as mentioned tactical 'tricks' don't seem to work on Bekele so you might as well try to run the legs off everyone else and you never know Kenny might crack too. Only chance against someone who can kick off both a fast and slow pace and seems to handle surges easily too.

Omar Little wrote (see)

Anyone else see this unlikely competitor about three quarters of the way through?

Bit out of order really, but quite funny.

I was quite impressed with his speed!

   Yeah was a great true run race , Tadesse was really working bekile fom 5k onwards was good to see someone actually taking it to him.

As for Bekele in the marathon i think in about a year or two he will move up ,that will be very intresting as he will then be against not only Tadesse who has a lot to prove in the marathon as he dropped out early at London this year but also he will be pitted against Sammy Wanjuru who will inevitably brake Hailes World record very soon. With Wanjuru he is very young and wont be phazed by Bekele at all. If those three get it it on  in the right conditions i can see a sub 2hrs 3mins happening!!!