PARIS, 23 July 2003 — An athletics track near Paris is to be named in honor of double Olympic 10,000 meters champion Haile Gebrselassie, local authorities announced here yesterday.
The Ethiopian long distance great will inaugurate the Blanc Mesnil circuit on Aug. 27 while he competes in the World Championships at the Stade de France.
Gebrselassie, 30, will be trying to regain the 10,000m world title he lost at Edmonton in 2001 when he finished third.
He made his marathon debut in April 2002 in London with a stunning 2 hours 6 minutes 35 seconds, less than one minute off the fastest ever time over the distance. But he paid a high price for the feat as he was unable to train at all for the rest of 2002 and then decided to return to track running this year.
Olympic Champion Ngeny Out of Kenyan Trials
In Nairobi, Olympic 1500 meters champion Noah Ngeny will not run at the Kenyan world championship trials because of a right hip fracture, the runner said yesterday.
Ngeny is the third leading athlete to bow out of the trials on Friday and Saturday after injured world half-marathon title holder Paul Kosgei and Olympic and world 3,000 meters steeplechase champion Reuben Kosgei. “I won’t run in the trials because of the hip fracture which made me not finish the race during the Armed Forces Championship last month. I am sorry for my fans but there is another time,” Ngeny told Reuters.
Athletics Kenya’s secretary general David Okeyo said he sympathized with Ngeny but there were other top runners who could excite the fans at the trials and win medals at the world championships in Paris next month. “That is unfortunate for Ngeny but there are others like (Olympic bronze medalist and world silver medalist) Bernard Lagat and Cornelius Chirchir among others who can still provide a thrilling competition,” he said.
Kenya will name their team on Saturday after the trials.
