Bekele to go for record
ByReuters
Published 26/08/2005 at 16:24 GMT
World and Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele will try to break his 10,000 metres world record at Friday's Brussels Golden League. The 23-year-old Ethiopian intended to break his mark of 26 minutes 20.31 seconds in Hengelo in May but cold weather and gusting
Eurosport
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After retaining his world 10,000 metres crown in Helsinki this month Bekele announced he would try again, aided by his brother Tariku.
"It is possible for me to improve my time in Brussels. I have good shape, and if the weather conditions are good, and normally, in Brussels the weather is good each year, the time is possible," Bekele said on the International Association of Athletics Federations website.
Good weather should also ensure Russian Yelena Isinbayeva will attempt to set her 11th women's world pole vault record of the year.
The Olympic champion sailed over the bar with plenty to spare when she cleared 5.01 metres in Helsinki after safely securing her first world title.
The much-anticipated duel between world and Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin and world record holder Asafa Powell is in doubt.
Jamaican Powell is on the entry list for the 100 metres but has had a groin problem this season which forced him to pull out of the world championships and last week's Zurich Golden League meeting.
Gatlin, 23, has his sights on Powell's record of 9.77 seconds, set in Athens in June.
"In ideal circumstances a time of 9.75 or 9.76 doesn't look impossible but everything must be perfect," the American said.
"At the moment, I must improve my start."
Gatlin will line up against former world champions Maurice Greene and Kim Collins in the race.
Russian Tatyana Lebedeva competes in the triple jump as the sole contender for the $1 million Golden League jackpot.
The 29-year-old watched from the infield in Zurich as her final rival for the prize, Christine Arron, dropped out of the running with fourth place in the 100 metres.
Lebedeva must win in Brussels and Berlin to claim the prize which is divided between athletes who win in a single discipline at all six Golden League meetings.
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