3 April 2008
Addis Abeba — DUAL Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie will not compete in the 10,000m at the Beijing Games, a UK-based sports news website reported citing Coach Woldemeskel Kostre, dismissing the athletics legend's prospects.
Haile, 34, has already withdrawn from the Olympic marathon because of concerns about pollution in Beijing, but he said he could return to the track and compete in the 10,000m.
The four-time world 10,000m champion retired from the track after finishing fifth in the 2004 Olympics final in Athens to concentrate on the marathon, over which distance he is the world record holder.
"It's very tough for him because he can't compete with the younger men over the 10,000. That's why he has shifted to the marathon," Fox Sports News quoted Woldemeskel.
The report said Dr. Woldemeskel was speaking at a reception "for the all-conquering Ethiopian cross-county team" at Leeds Metropolitan University.
The athlete, who suffers from exercise-related asthma, told a news agency in mid March he would not run the 42.195-km event because he feared Beijing's air pollution was a threat to his health.
Ethiopia's Athletics Federation said last month that Haile cannot opt out of the Beijing Olympics marathon and must follow Ethiopian sports rules.
The report said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Haile's withdrawal was fully justified and that no one could force him to compete, "but the Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) said the decision was not his to make." "We really admire him, we love him, we respect him but he's not ready to run 10,000 metres at the Olympics," the coach added." Ethiopia won each of the four individual titles for the first time at the world championships in Edinburgh over the weekend.
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