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OLYMPIC RECONNAISSANCE
The Athens Classic Marathon on Sunday provides an opportunity for Ethiopian
Alemayu Simretu to a bit of "homework" ahead of next year's Olympic race
on the same course. Simretu sees himself as a scout for his colleagues back
home in Addis Ababa. "My first objective is to win, of course," said the 32
year old, who ran in the last Olympics in Sydney, "but I'm also here to do
homework for all the Ethiopians".
Simretu is a member of the national marathon squad, which includes Gezahegne Abera, the first man to win both Olympic and world titles (2000/1). "I'll bring intelligence back to the national coaches, on the rise and fall of the course and the flat parts," added Alemayu".
That should be fairly straightforward. This original Olympic course, first
run in 1896 from the village of Marathon to Athens is one of the toughest
in the world. The first 15 kilometres - which includes a diversion around
the burial mound of the soldiers killed in the famous battle in 490BC,
which inspired the race - is relatively flat. It then rises gradually for
close to 20k, before wheeling down the final 5k into the impressive marble
Panathenaikon Stadium, built for the first modern Olympic Games 107 years
ago. Simretu has the fastest of the field, a 2.07.44 in winning Torino two
years ago. He says he just wants to win against the dominating Kenyans, led
by last year's winner, Mark Saina. But one man prepared to stick his neck
out and predict a new course record was another East African, Zebedayo Bayo
of Tanzania. Another altitude-trained runner, from Arusha, on the slopes of
Mount Kilimanjaro, Bayo, 27 said, "I think I can do 2.10 here". The record,
which dates from 1969 is 2.11.07, by Britain's Bill Adcocks.
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