Day 9 Summary

Men's Marathon
Kenyans ran a clinic finishing 1-2-5. As usual Ethiopia put together a very underwhelming performance. At the 25K point only Feyisa Lilesa was in contention. Feyisa Lilesa tried to keep up with the eventual winner Vincent Kipruto but found himself alone flanked by Kenyans. Give credit to Feyisa Lilesa who battled it out for 3rd. The second place Ethiopian finisher was in 13th place and the 3rd Ethiopian finisher was in 28th. This race clearly was a huge disaster for Ethiopia.

Men's 5000 M
I just don't get it. Did the Ethiopian coaches think they can out-kick Mo Farah twice? And did they think they were going to outkick Legat? Dejen Gebremeskel who challenged Mo Farah was in the middle of the pack at the bell. He was not in good position and had to run mostly on the outside. But Dejen Gebremeskel gave it a go and you have to respect him for going all out for gold. With 200M to go Imane Merga, just like the 10,000M was not going all out for gold. He picked off Dejen Gebremeskel at the finish third with the energy he had saved. The good news was that Imane Merga was disqualified and Dejen Gebremeskel has the bronze.


Daegu was a disaster for Ethiopia. The results were caused by of years of neglect and incompetence. Ethiopian athletics clearly is not keeping up. I suspect the slide will continue for years to come.