December 2009
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European countdown to Beijing - Elvan Abeylegesse (TUR) |
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12.08.2008 |
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| Beating ex teammates in Osaka
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Elvan
Abeylegesse has steadily climbed up the podium, winning a 5,000m bronze medal
at the 2006 European Athletics Championships and a silver over 10,000m at the
IAAF World Championships 12 months ago. The question now is obvious, can she
win Turkey's first ever Olympic athletics gold medal?
Now
25, the Ethiopian-born runner first made her mark buy winning over 3,000m at the 2001 European Athletics
Junior Championships but the rest of the planet sat up and took notice of her
three years later when she ran a 5,000m world record of 14:24.68 in the
Norwegian city of Bergen.
As
the first Turkish runner to set an athletics world record, a mark which stood
for two years until her former compatriot Meserat Defar broke it in 2006, she
was front page news across the Mediterranean country and has continued making
headlines ever since.
"My
target since the first day I started running has been to break world records
and become Olympic champion. I've achieved one of those goals, although I
believe I can still break more world records,
and now I am I aiming to achieve the other goal," said Abeylegesse,
who was born Hewan Abeye.
However,
tenacity could also have been a good name for her considering the trials and
tribulations she has undergone since she became a Turkish citizen in 1999 at
the age of 16.
She
looked destined for a place on the 5,000m rostrum in Athens four years ago,
just two months after her historic run, but she had an indifferent outing in
the event at which she was the world record holder, coming home 12th after
leading at the halfway point in the race.
"It
was a huge disappointment for me, for everybody," reflected Abeylegesse.
The
reasons for her demise appeared clear to athletics fans because she put in two
super-fast laps in the middle of the race which did nothing but reduce her own
legs to rubber at the end of a race won by Defar.
However,
Abeylegesse also admits now she was distracted by media reports in Turkey that
her family back in Ethiopia had received death threats, ostensibly because of
her potential challenge on the track to her former country's runners.
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Confortably sitting behind Britain's Jo Pavey in
Goteborg 2006.
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There
is still a big question mark over whether the reports were substantiated but it
was enough unsettle Abeylegesse.
She
bounced back with dignity to finish eighth in the 1,500m, after three tough
rounds, which in itself was the best ever performance by a Turkish female
athlete but it was still not enough to stop the criticism in some of the more
hysterical parts of the Turkish media at her failure to bring home a medal.
Her
critics were not even initially mollified by Esref Apak getting the men's
hammer bronze, Turkey's first Olympic medal in athletics for 56 years, as he
only received it a week after the event following a doping disqualification.
However,
gradually, she regained her confidence and her appetite for major
championships, winning the 2006 European Cup 10,000m - a title she has retained
on the two subsequent occasions - before finishing third over 5,000m in Gothenburg
later that year.
Her
silver medal in Osaka last summer brought a change of tune from the country's
media, a sharp contrast to the derisive words being written in some quarters
three years before.
"Turkey
is proud of you," ran the headline on the front page of one of the country's best-selling newspapers.
Abeylegesse could finally feel the warmth of the spotlight.
""Everyone
said that I cannot win in major championships. I hope this is the perfect
answer to them. My only regret is due to my continued problems with my tendon,
which I'm still struggling with at times and have done so for several years,
that I missed the chance of winning the gold medal," she reflected.
Her
success in Osaka sadly also had a negative effect, this time not in Turkey but
once again in her native Ethiopia, and she has had change in the way that she
has prepared for the Olympics in comparison to previous years.
"The
(Ethiopian) officials don't allow me to train in Ethiopia any longer. I train
now at high altitudes in Turkey as I think that some of my former compatriots
see me as a threat. They are uncomfortable with me training in Ethiopia. But I,
of course, remain friends with the individual Ethiopian runners like Defar,"
commented Abeylegesse recently.
Nevertheless,
regardless of the struggles she has had to cope with on and off the track,
Abeylegesse remains Turkish biggest hope for an athletics medal.
She
has also proved to be an inspiration to a up-and-coming Turkish women athletes
like the 2007 European Athletics under 23 100m Hurdles gold medallist Nevin
Yanit, who can look down the line to the 2012 Olympics in London with
optimism.
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