For Wami, road to Beijing via the streets of New York
IAAF, Monaco - October 25, 2007

More than 20 years ago when Ethiopia’s Gete Wami first joined her first professional running club, she was “out of this world with happiness” after receiving a meagre ETB 127 (USD 14) as a first month’s salary with the Omedla Police sports club.

Now more than two decades later and after a world 10,000m title, one silver and two bronze medals from the Olympic Games, and various World cross country titles, the 32-year-old is in line to win USD 500,000 for finishing atop of the 2006/07 World Marathon Majors (WMM) series which links top Marathons in New York, Berlin, Chicago, London, and Boston and marathons in the Olympic Games and the World Championships.

Difficult double looms

It is therefore easy for her to get carried away at the thought of winning one of athletics’ top cash prizes, but Wami is surprisingly calm about the prospects of collecting her biggest payday.

“Of course 500,000 dollars is a big motivation,” she says with less than two weeks to go before she runs in the ING New York City Marathon. “But I try not to think about the money a lot. I am just concentrating on preparation.”

Given the high stakes involved, Wami does need to put her feet on the ground. Only 35 days after winning the 2007 Real Berlin Marathon in another fast time of 2:23.17, the fourth sub 2:24 of her career, she is 10 points ahead of her closest challenger, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, in the WMM current standings. While Wami is in her ‘recovery period’ after her exhaustion in Berlin, Prokopcuka travels to the Big Apple with fresh legs after running her last marathon in April ...