Ethiopian athletes have taken five of the six gold medals on offer in both the men’s and women’s event in the last three Olympic Games and anything else has become unacceptable for Ethiopians who have come to define gold in this marquee event as a minimum return for their passionate following of the team.
Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh
In the last two years following injuries to 2008 double Olympic champions Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia’s vanguard event and success has been threatened by sparing success from Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot, who took the 5000m and 10000m double at the world championships in Daegu last year, and Britain’s Somali-born European double champion Mohammed Farah, who after years of mediocrity has established himself as one of the athletes to watch out for in both men’s events.
Both Cheruiyot and Farah will again be hoping to claim major Ethiopian scalps this year, but they will face a resurgent Ethiopian team with both Dibaba and Bekele returning from injury to lead the squad over the 5000m and a crop of young stars emerging in the men’s 5000m, perhaps a timely answer to calls by fans for fresh faces in Ethiopia’s major championship squads.
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