Bekele, 39, did not run the Ethiopian Olympic Trials in either the marathon are on the track this spring. He reportedly said the 99-day gap between the marathon trials and the Olympic marathon was too short. Bekele was left off Ethiopia’s Rio Olympic team despite being Ethiopia’s top finisher at that spring’s London Marathon. Bekele swept the 2008 Olympic 5000m and 10,000m titles among eight total Olympic or world titles between those events. The team does not include Almaz Ayana, who won the Rio Olympic 10,000m by taking 14.33 seconds off a 23-year-old world record.

Source: Ethiopian News July 01, 2021 18:22 UTC