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| Faith in God clinched it for Bekele |
Addis Ababa: Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele’s father had initially opposed his son’s athletics career but relented when he saw it was driven by religious faith.
“I prevented him from doing his training,” Bekele’s father, Byecha, said in a newspaper interview. “I wanted him to do something practical with his education and grow up to be a civil servant.
“I told him to concentrate on his education rather than become overwhelmed by this nonsense he calls athletics.
“But I saw determination in his eyes and when he called the name of God as a driving force to his achievement, I gave him my blessings,” added the 78-year-old. Ethiopia’s Bekele sealed his reputation as both the present and future of long-distance running by claiming the 10,000m gold, leaving his mentor Haile Gebrselassie to finish fifth. Bekele, who dethroned Gebrselassie as world champion last year, produced a withering burst on the final lap to win in 27 minutes 5.10 seconds and take his injured compatriot’s Olympic crown as well.
A proud Byecha said: “I believe the boys I had from Kenenisa’s mother, Kuli Megerssa, came at a late age as a gift of God. I was happy to get a son at a late age of 56 and named him Kenenisa, which means in the Oromo language ‘you brought me delight.’