Tadese & Bekele

The Olympic Stadium in Berlin tonight witnessed a showdown which was an outstanding performance by Zersenay Tadese, who proved once again that Eritreans are to be taken serious in the men’s 10,000 metre race.

Tadese finished second in 26:50.12 after a strong fight making Eritrea proud by capturing the silver medal in the “battle of the giants”. The Eritrean is the season’s best and second fastest in the world.

Amongst thirty one athletes Tadese lead the field most of the time being chased by a group of Ethiopian and Kenyan runners. After 8,000 metres Tadese and Bekele of Ethiopia fought alone for the gold medal leaving the entire field behind.

It was an Eritrean – Ethiopian race with millions of spectators watching around the globe. In a dramatic finish Bekele of Ethiopia overtook Tadese increasing his pace to a sprint and finishing first with a new championship record (26:46.31). The third place went to Moses Ndiema Masai of Kenya (25:57.94).

The second best Eritrean was Kidane Tadese, who finished ninth followed by Teklemariam Mehin who completed the race taking the twelfth position. As the commentator put it, “Zersenay Tadese is a formidable opponent”. Once again he has placed Eritrea into the spot light of international sports. Eritreans around the world were following the breath taking race with their heart beating to every step Zersenay Tadese made.