Tadese out to ruin Kenyan athletes

By REUTERS

Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea (left) and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethopia display their medals during the awards ceremony for the men's 10,000 metres at the world athletics championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin in 2009. Tadese poses the greatest challenge for the Kenyan team in Sunday's London marathon.

By REUTERS

Eritrean Zersenay Tadese poses the biggest potential threat to Kenyan plans to dominate the men’s London marathon this morning after a sensational performance last month.

Tadese, who dropped out of last year’s London race, slashed 10 seconds off Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru’s world record when he clocked 58 minutes 23 seconds in the Lisbon Half-Marathon in March. Last year’s winner Wanjiru said on Friday that he would combine with world champion Abel Kirui and Duncan Kibet in a team effort in order to deliver a seventh consecutive men’s London title to Kenya.




Team tactics have been successful in the annual world cross country championships for Kenya, who swept the individual and team events this year. “You cannot achieve things in this race alone,” Kirui told reporters. “Maybe after 35-km we will go it alone but at the end if one of us wins we will all celebrate because it will be an achievement for all of us.”



Main threat



Despite Tadese’s heroics in Portugal, Wanjiru identified Tsegaye Kebede as the main threat to the Kenyans. The Ethiopian pushed the winner to a course record two hours five minutes 10 seconds last year. “Sunday will be a wonderful race. It will be very difficult for me because everyone is so good. Abel is the world champion now so everyone wants to see the world and Olympic champions fight each other,” Wanjiru said.



The speed of Wanjiru and Tadese suggests Haile Gebrselassie’s world record of 2:03:59 could be under threat although the Kenyan said the slopes and curves of the demanding London course made a record unlikely. Temperatures are forecast to be around 21 degrees Celsius after a week of glorious spring weather in London, with south-westerly winds also making conditions difficult.



Irina Mikitenko, aiming to emulate fellow German Katrin Dorre by completing a hat-trick of London women’s victories, had no complaints about the weather. Mikitenko was forced to improvise her training routines during a savage European winter by moving to Spain for four weeks in January and training on an indoor track in Frankfurt in February. “The big advantage is I have had good experiences in London,” she said.