I feel like tomorrow can be our big day to collect a lot of medals. The record for the two events (Marathon and the 5000meters) have always been set by Ethiopians historically. But our runners sometimes underperform so we can never be sure.... it is going to be close.
Yes, there is no Haile tomorrow (who holds world record for the marathon) but here is the list of the top seven runners for the Saturday marathon.
Tsegay Kebede-Ethiopia Jaouad Gharib- Morocco Abel Kirui - Kenya Deriba Merga -Ethiopia Yemane Tsegay-Ethiopia Emmanuel Mutai-Kenya Yonas Kifle- Eritrea
The Moroccan Jaouad has the best personal time of 2 hours and 5:04 minutes. But i think Tsegay and Deriba have more confidence from their nice Olympic performances last year. If Ethiopia gets all three medals, it would be amazing, a miracle! And it would make us a top three or top five on the world medal table.
Another place we can get two or three medals in one event is the 5,000 meters for Women race tomorrow. I know, i know, Meseret Defar has not been "Defar" recently. But she might recover. Honestly speaking, i think the only woman athlete better than Meseret in the world today is Tirunesh Dibaba. But Tirunesh is not running so Meseret should have stacked up gold medals. Sadly, she has let us down and she is underestimating the competition. Maybe she needs Tirunesh to kick her a*s so she wakes up again!
Kenya will be a challenge here too but Meseret and Meselech Melkamu clearly have the BEST times for the 5,000 meters. They should still watch out for Vivian and Sylvia from Kenya. If the third Ethiopian Sentayehu Ejigu overachieves, we can sweep the medals here too. I really think We should own these middle and long distance races. The Kenyan team is diversifying and expanding to shorter races like the 800 meters. It is Something we should be doing by the way. Except Deresse who just won the 1,500 this week, our coaches and managers are doing a very poor job of promoting diversity.
Anyway, can Ethiopia get five or Six medals in one day ? It might be possible on Saturday. As Haile says in his commercial below, "Impossible is Nothing!"
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