Bekele looks to banish the blues of 2012 over 10km in Dublin

Kenenisa Bekele insisted ahead of Sunday’s SPAR Great Ireland Run, an IAAF Silver label Road Race, that despite a disappointing two-year spell when his career was  derailed for much of the time through injury, that he is targeting a medal this summer’s IAAF World Championships.

The Ethiopian star surrendered his World 10000m crown title to his compatriot Ibrahim Jeilan at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, when he failed to finish, and was fourth over 25 laps of the track at the London 2012 Olympic Games but was adamant he will bounce back ahead of his first race since last August.

“My goals this year is the World Championship,” said Bekele speaking in Dublin on Friday (12), where Jeilan will be one of his opponents in Phoenix Park over 10km on Sunday.

“It won’t be easy this year, there is a lot of competition – but I hope I will do better. Of course I’m thinking about Rio, it’s not so far away. I’m not sure if it will be the marathon or the 10000m for me.”

The World record holder over 5000m and 10000m admitted that he expects sooner-or-later to follow in the footsteps of his legendary fellow countryman and early mentor Haile Gebrselassie and move up distance.

“I’m not planning on any marathons this year, but maybe next year; 2011 and 2012 were not good years for me. I ran out of time preparing for 2012 Olympics; fourth was disappointing. Maybe if I’d had two or three weeks more (training), I would have had a medal.” Read more