ETHIOPIA marathon team goes home DEVASTATED

5000mLegend wrote:

Kitata dropping out before the 10th km

Lemma dropping out at the 23th km.

Desisa dropped by the pack at the first Kenyan surge. Google tells him he apparently also dropped out of the race.

None of them finished the race nor were a factor in this marathon.

They did not pick BEKELE because they wanted to do "trials" to see who was in shape.

Lets laugh at them.

^^^ this

Well Kenenisa at least proved his self respect

Kitata would be an excellent pick for any country.

Yeah, worst Olympics results for ethiopia since I can remember.... Kenya finishes number 3 on track and field medals, with 4 golds and 10 overall. Congratulations neighbors!!!

All three of them will be in fall marathons getting paid. No reason to finish the Olympic marathon if you're out of medal contention.

Dr Ashebr has to go.

The man is evil.

He sabotaged everything, Messed up the opening ceremony where Ethiopia only had 2 people turn out that are not even athletes. 1 is a translator.

A big fight between dr ashebr and Derartu Tulu has left the whole process in a mess.

so many of our best were left home.

the 5k is what hurts me most. We had Baraga that could have doubled, we had Muktar Edris that is current DOUBLE worl champion and the guy that beat Mo Fara, we had Yomif or even Hagos Gebrehiowt. Instead they brough in 3 guys that cannot even make it out of the heat.

Everything was done to not get ethiopia anywhere near medals.

Even the 5k women, Geday is world record holder but they put her in her weak race, the 10k.

Heads will roll.

Ethiopians are already saying they will be waiting for the Olympic Commitee with STONES. Honestly, they are pissed. Ethiopians are fuming.

ethiopian wrote:

Yeah, worst Olympics results for ethiopia since I can remember.... Kenya finishes number 3 on track and field medals, with 4 golds and 10 overall. Congratulations neighbors!!!

How old are you? Three DNFs in 2012 too.

El Keniano wrote:

Kitata would be an excellent pick for any country.

Sure…if not for 35km of trial racing a few weeks before the big stage. I think that’s what the OP is getting at.

Those trials were about three months ago, about two weeks after Kipchoge's spring marathon.

ZEthiopians,

I totaly agree iwth you.

I am kenyan by the way and I have to say that it pains me to see Ethiopia go this way. from the top of my head, I think you guys had three or four medals: Barega, Girma, Giddy and I think a bronze in the 5k....Tsegay. I hope I didn't leave anything out.

On Saturday, when Obiri fell off the hot pace, I was rooting for Letesenbet Gidey but I knew she wasn't going anywhere because Sifan was too close for comfort.

It is also interesting that thow or three Ethiopian ladies who don't run for Ethiopia ran very well; Hassan, Gezahegne .

Yes, the worst atrocity as you described was committed in the men's 5k.

Why Gebrhiwet and Mukhtar Edris were not on the team is beyond human comprehension. IT IS CRIMINAL!

Those two boys together (on the same team) have their own little battle and I think in the last war, Mukhtar came out on top.

Yes, even berega could have doubled. He had a lot ot time to recover from his 10k.

If not him, may be Kejelcha.

It is sad that even without Ethiopia, we (Kenya) cannot medal in the 5k. This was our best chance and we blew it.

I think ethiopian Olympics management team is what we'd call in Kenya the mafia. We still remember your swimmer in Rio who was put on the team by his dad. That was an insult not just to the Ethiopians but all humanity and especially those who are swimming fans. We just saw a Tunisian win gold. Africa has talent but not when guys like your swimming president are in charge.

Ethiopia needs to re-engineer but first, heads must roll.

We have our own challenges too. We lost three medals that we should not have lost and for that , we must do an audit of what went wrong.

We also need to revamp our 5 and 10k programmes. The only thing working for us is the marathon..

Good luck neighbour. We need you guys and I mean this in the most sincere way.

I think Ethiopia has enough to be worried about what with half the country killing/displacing the other half, again. Didn't Gidey have to flee the Tsegray region earlier this year? Hard to train in such circumstances

Bekele is too erratic in the marathon. There is a 10% chance he might run 2:08 but there is a 90% chance he he might drop out after 15km. I would never pick Bekele.

I don't know if Bekele would have done any different. He has a history of dropping out too.

I saw the Ethiopian women warming up for the marathon. They had on sweatpants and sweatshirts even though it already was hot and humid. I thought "WTF? Maybe they know what they are doing, maybe not." Looks like the latter, based on results.

ethiopian wrote:

Yeah, worst Olympics results for ethiopia since I can remember.... Kenya finishes number 3 on track and field medals, with 4 golds and 10 overall. Congratulations neighbors!!!

Still considered subpar by our standards. If anything, this will prevent them from resting on the laurels and trigger some much needed changes. And I agree with NativeSon - the dinosaurs have got to go. The decisions they made, especially that men's 5000 team are unforgivable and should mean automatic dismissal. Kenya needs Ethiopia to get better and vice-versa.

Feeling so bad that as East Africans we're steadily losing grip on 5& 10k especially women...

We need to wake up and rectify this... East Africa needs to come up with their own athletics championships to strengthen these two races...

Native

You're 100% correct. We're lead by mafia but don't worry, it will change in weeks. Ethiopians all over the media want answers and people are fuming. Our worse performance since 1992 Barcelona. We won 4 medals.

The athletes that were left out including Bekele will show the world the EOC is corrupt by winning big races soon.

I was very happy to see Kip pisss up the marathon and like i said here before, if Ethiopians don't win, i want Kenya to win and was very happy yesterday.

Note that the Nike Organ operation was created to destroy the east African domination of distance races. Alberto Salazar said this word for word.

Its all about soft power. They will do everything including doping to ensure we don't take the lime light.

To discourage Ethiopians and Kenyas running 10k, they removed 10k from grand prex :(

Athlets cannot make a living running the 10k now. See what am talking about?????????????

Have you noticed how many Ethiopian and Kenyan runners are running for other countries? Isreal, Turkey, Bahrain etc. Our athlets are being systematically removed so they don't fly our flag when they win. The 5k women, top 3 were all Ethiopian born and raised including Saifan Hasan.

There is talk in Ethiopia that says Dr Ashebr was paid a lot of money to sabotage chances. They're now paying our management to stop best athletes getting to the finals even if they have the best times. Worse Olympic for Kenya and Ethiopia for a long time. Kenya did not do too bad but who can believe a Kenyan not winning 3k steeplechase?

When i say THEY, i leave you to figure out who i mean.

Anyone that has followed the sport knows Ethiopia had Gold medal chances in the 5k with terrific guys but they did not get selected. Gedey a 5k world record holder was sent in a 10k which she's not great at. The only Gold we won was unexpected. The ethiopian federation thought it was headed to Uganda. If they knew Barega was going to win, they would not have put him in. They thought it was headed to Uganda.

#Sabotage

NativeSon

It is also interesting that thow or three Ethiopian ladies who don't run for Ethiopia ran very well; Hassan, Gezahegne .

Similar to Somalia, with Abdi and Nageeye they could have had two medals in marathon, but they go to Belgium and the Netherlands instead.

zEthiopians wrote:

Native

You're 100% correct. We're lead by mafia but don't worry, it will change in weeks. Ethiopians all over the media want answers and people are fuming....

Are athletes leaving mainly due to cash (like those who went to Qatar and Bahrain, including the entire Bulgarian weightlifting team), or is it Mafiosi type leaders like Barre in Somalia and his clan based oppression and killing? Or is life assumed to be easier in these other countries?

Has picking Ethiopian Olympic teams turned into a proxy war of clans?

Manbearpig15 wrote:

All three of them will be in fall marathons getting paid. No reason to finish the Olympic marathon if you're out of medal contention.

I thought similar cynical approach as they all came out early and seemed to be clutching similarly tight hamstrings.

The rise of Uganda as a medal-grabber is bound to have an adverse impact on Ethio and Kenya results as they are all competing for medals in the same event group (yeah I know Kenya had a mighty javelin thrower).

These guys just want a major race payday. The Olympics don't mean anything to them. When you come from extreme poverty, your values are different. Sad but true.