Haile hates smog but is a breath of fresh air

As Radcliffe struggles to make it, Gebrselassie's asthma will definitely rule him out of Beijing. By Simon Turnbull in Hengelo

There is a fair chance that Paula Radcliffe has already been reduced to tears following her latest brush with the painfully fickle hand of fate. Had she been in this sleepy corner in the east of the Netherlands yesterday, the poor, injury-jinxed leading lady of British athletics would hardlyhave known whether to weep or laugh at the irony of it all.

The fastest female marathon runner in history was actually in the French Pyrenees yesterday, having flown to her training base at Font Romeu on Friday not so much on a wing and a prayer as on a mission more improbable than an Indiana Jones plot. Radcliffe has precisely 12 weeks in which to get from her crutches to the top step of the Olympic podiumin Beijing – along the way not just overcoming a fractured femur but also, as a lifelong asthmatic, a 26.2-mile race through a city which boasts (if that is the correct term) the world’s most toxic air, some 12 times higher than the “safe” level which is set by the World Health Organisation.

The 34-year-old Bedfordshire woman would probably hobble all the way to Beijing on her crutches just to get another shot at the one prize that has eluded her in a career as the female trailblazer of the marathon. The world’s fastest-ever male marathon runner is not quite so desperate to contest the men’s race in the Chinese capital in August. Hence Haile Gebrselassie’s presence here yesterday in the opening grand prix meeting in Europe in this Olympic track season. Before lining up for the 10,000m in the FBK Games at Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadium, in the meeting and on the track named in honour of the flying Dutchwoman who won four gold medals at the London Olympics of 1948, the little Ethiopian explained why he would not be busting a gut to run in the men’s marathon in Beijing – in fact, why he would not be running in the race at all.

“I went to Beijing in February and I saw a lot of smog,” Gebrselassie said. “If you see this in the middle of winter, what will the conditions be like in the middle of summer? I decided it is better not to take the risk, because I’ve discovered that I suffer from asthma and from hayfever. I now know the things that cause me problems – the weather conditions, the types of flowers, even the type of perfume my wife uses. I now buy the perfume for my wife, so I can be sure it will not affect me.”

If Radcliffe’s asthma is not quite so acute, then neither is Gebrselassie’s craving for Olympic gold, the 5ft 3in Ethiopian phenomenon having already savoured the sweet aroma of Olympic success with his 10,000m victories in Atlanta in 1996 and in Sydney in 2000.

The Little Emperor’s days as king of that particular event have gone – Kenenisa Bekele, his fellow countryman and sometime training partner, relieved him of his Olympic crown and his world record at the distance in 2004. Since finishing fifth in the 10,000m in Athens four years ago, though, Gebrselassie has conquered another domain, setting a marathon world record of 2hr 4min 26 sec in Berlin last September, averaging 4min 45sec for each mile, a breathtaking feat of speed-endurance. Still, at 35, he was back on the track yesterday – the track where he broke the first of his 25 records, with a 12min 56.96sec 5,000m run in 1994. Gebrselassie has set four world records on the Blankers-Koen track and has become known in these parts as “Mr Hengelo”.

Instead of chasing the clock yesterday, though, having ruled himself out of the marathon in Beijing he was racing for one of three 10,000m places available in the Ethiopian Olympic team. With Bekele contesting the 5,000m in preparation for an assault on his 10,000m world record in Eugene on 8 June, Gebr-selassie needed to finish among the top two Ethiopians to put himself in the selection frame.

He did so with a vengeance, rolling back the years as he mixed it with the best of the track’s distance men (Bekele excepted), outkicking Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge – the 5,000m silver medallist at last year’s World Championships – to finish a close second to his fellow countryman Sileshi Sihine, the 10,000m silvermedallist behind Bekele at the 2004 Olympics and the last two World Championships. Sihine prevailed in 26min 50.53sec, with Gebrselassie – who ran in flat shoes – clocking 26:51.20 as the runner-up and laying a convincing claim to the third 10,000m spot on the Ethiopian team.

“If I have the chance to compete in the 10,000m that would be wonderful,” Gebrselassie reflected. “If I don’t compete in these Olympics I hope I’ll have a chance in 2012. I am very much looking forward to that. I will only be 39. Mamo Wolde was 40 when he won the Olympic marathon in 1968.” And Paula Radcliffe will be a mere slip of a 38-year-old when the London Olympics come round.

The cynical have suggested that monetary considerations have influenced Gebrselassie’s decision to bypass the marathon in Beijing. It will, after all, allow him to run a lucrative autumn marathon – probably in Berlin, where he would be expected to chase a 26th world record. “For me, the money is not the top priority,” he insisted. “If I had the chance to go and run in London in 2012, that would mean more to me than $5m or $6m.”

Cynicism is not easy to summon with Gebrselassie. His beaming smile and genial presence – not to mention that beautifully smooth running style – were guaranteed to brighten the opening event of the European circuit, offering a welcome reminder that there happens to be more to top-level athletics than the laboratory and the courtroom. Off the track he has been a breath of fresh air, too.

For more than a decade the shepherd’s son has ploughed his earnings into enterprises back home set up to create jobs. With some 500 employees depending on him, Gebrselassie’s greatest concern this week has not been athletics or the Olympics. “The price of oil reaching $135 a barrel is very worrying,” he said. “This is time to realise there that we have to find other energy resources in the world. We have no other choice. Opec, I think they have to realise that it’s a wake-up call for the rest of the world. This is not politics; this is reality.”

Gebrselassie has long courted the possibility of entering pol-itics. “Yeah, I am still thinking about it,” he said. “But I am not finished as a runner yet. I want to continue breaking world records for as long as possible.”