Cheptegei and Bekele, splendor and decline in the Valencia marathon | Sports

Like all the moons in the world, the Valencia moon is in its waning phase, and the planets are aligned. A star at his peak, Joshua Cheptegei, the King!, is combined with the fastest marathon of modern times, in the exact times when it is impossible to run slowly. And a planet that shone like the sun, Kenenisa Bekele, eclipses next to it so as not to steal its light. It is the eve of the 42,195 kilometers round trip of the old Turia, and no one talks about anything else, and expectations multiply so much that only history can explain the loss of feeling.

The birth of a champion, the decline of another, on the same street, the same morning of a warm December in Valencia, this Sunday at 8:15. Seven of the best 30 records in history have been achieved in Valencia, and in only two editions, 2020 and 2022. Only the 13 Berlin records surpass it. London remains at five and Tokyo at two.

Cheptegei, only 27 years old, is a Ugandan from Kapchorwa, 1,800 meters above sea level, the city of the Sipi Falls north of Lake Victoria, next to the eastern border of Kenya, and since it has been a long time and there is mud on the roads, he He trains, but not much, nor does he reach 160 kilometers per week, on the polluted but paved streets of the market. He is the current Olympic and world champion and world record holder in the 5,000m (12m 35.36s) and 10,000m (26m 11s). And before him, only four athletes had run a marathon in their times as world record holders in the major long-distance events. Four of the greatest, of course, Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren, Haile Gebrselassie and Bekele.

Not everyone did perfectly in the distance of 42,195 meters, a fact that makes the debut of the Ugandan, the gifted of recent years, an enigma, and people talk and repeat that the messiah, the first athlete who will go down from the two hours, he is indeed a Ugandan, but his name is not Cheptegei, but Jacob Kiplimo, just turned 23 years old and, with 57m 31s, world record holder in the half marathon. The Czech was Olympic distance champion in the same Games in which he won the 5,000m and 10,000m, Helsinki 52; the Finn came to nothing; The first Ethiopian, Gebrselassie, broke the world record twice, and Bekele, the second Ethiopian, who has already turned 41, combines few joys and many disappointments, multiplied by his generational coincidence with the untouchable Eliud Kipchoge. Since his debut in the distance, almost 10 years ago, the triple Olympic champion, fragile in physical consistency and tough in the head, has competed in seven marathons, won two and with his best time he was as close as two seconds away (2h 1m 41s) of the world record that, then, in 2019, was still held by Kipchoge. The Kenyan with the big smile lost the record a couple of months ago, when his supersonic and almost youthful, 23-year-old compatriot Kelvin Kiptum left him in Chicago in 2h 0m 35s. Herald of the new times, those of the negative split — the second half was faster than the first 21 kilometers 97.5 meters, 35 kilometers of pace and seven of madness because, as Juan del Campo, coach of the best Spaniard of the moment, says, Tariku Novales, the marathon has been reduced to a warm-up and a seven-kilometer run, the high dose of carbohydrates, 90 grams or more per hour, youth that does not step on the tartan tracks and flying shoes without spikes, which make it impossible go slowly, the tall athlete, 1.80m tall, has only run three marathons since his debut a year ago. In none of them has he taken more than 2h 2m.

Bekele marvels at this fact, one who, apart from repeated injuries, has suffered because his Nike Alphafly never harmonized with his stride, which, perhaps, apart from a wonderful economic offer, has led him to promote the great Chinese imitation, the Anta brand sneakers. “These marks are crazy now,” says Bekele, who is still the third best in history after Kiptum and Kipchoge. “I don’t know if the shoes, the nutrition… it takes a few years to be able to judge.” And he remains absorbed listening to Cheptegei, the athlete who dispossessed him of the 5,000m and 10,000m world records, his successor, who says that when he was a kid in high school he only dreamed of being like him, like Bekele, but then he appeared Kipchoge and he just wanted to be Kipchoge. “But don’t let anyone go crazy,” warns Cheptegei, who will start with the number one number. “It’s my first marathon. I come to learn, to see if the marathon can be my distance. I’m not thinking about the world record but about a mark of 2h 3m or so. Next year my big goal will be the 10,000m at the Paris Games. Then I will see if I continue on the track or dedicate myself only to the asphalt.”

They ask Bekele for advice from the young man and he laughs, “let him see me run,” he says ironically. Afterwards, he talks more seriously about his future, his hopes, his dream of qualifying for the Paris Olympic marathon. “But it will be very difficult, in Ethiopia there are very good marathon runners,” he says. “I have to get a great record and stay in shape. I don’t know if I will achieve it in Valencia, but whatever I do will give me an idea of ​​how I am compared to the other Ethiopians, and in another marathon I will achieve it.” And of his faith. Of his refusal to think about the decline of the champions. “I’m not finished,” he proclaims. “And even if I don’t make it to Paris, I won’t believe that my time has passed.”

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2023-12-01 19:01:18
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