Let's take into account the quote on the let's run home page:
Quote Of The Day
"I was able to do this with Bekele, follow him in the 5K, follow him in the 3k, always being close. I'm thinking, ‘You know, I'm really only training for the 1500 and I can do this.' Think about Bekele. He's training for his specialty, which is 5K and 10K and I'm getting close. Think about what happens if I add more to what I am doing or cut what I am doing for the 1500 and put more on the 5000-meter training."
The thing Lagat is not taking into consideration is that Bekele was just messing with him on these occasions. He will probably go from much further out. I dont think Bekele is far off from the world record shape he was back in 2004. I think Bekele will wisen up and just take off from 3 or 4 laps instead of one lap. Either way I dont see him losing to Lagat. He is just out of his prime. Maybe in his prime he could have beaten him and there is chance he will beat him in a race or 2, but no way he dominates Bekele unless he is injured. I feel like Bekele has a lot more motivation to be the best ever these days with Bolt getting all the attention. And you know he doesn't want to have to deal with comparisons to the Ethiopian emperor of long distance running.