Indoor 'wind' blows Bekele world record bid off course
AFP - February 10, 2008
Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele believes that his attempt to add to his multitude of world records and break the indoor 3,000m mark was bizarrely sabotaged by wind inside the arena here on Saturday.
Bekele ran seven minutes 36.08 seconds, more than 11 seconds outside his target of the 10-year-old mark of 7:24.90 set by Kenya's Daniel Komen.
"The weather conditions were very difficult. It was windy. I could feel it while running on one side of the track. Maybe there was a window open?" he said.
Bekele's feeling that the venue which will stage next month's World Indoor Championships was actually open to the chilly evening elements was confirmed by several other runners in the race including Kenya's Timothy Kiptanui.
"I've occasionally felt it before in other indoor races but it made things very difficult," added Kiptanui, who was the pacemaker for Bekele in the middles stages of the race ...