Kenenisa Bekele’s Comeback Begins

He’s been on a 16-month hiatus.

Several years ago, the track world couldn’t stop talking about the great Ethiopian distance runner, Kenenisa Bekele. After all, he had broken multiple world records and snatched three Olympic gold medals in his relatively short career.

However, after the Great Edinburgh Cross-Country meet in January, 2010, Bekele seemed to have vanished. In that race, held in snowy conditions, Bekele could only muster a fourth-place showing.

What Bekele was struggling with was a nagging calf injury that got worse. For seven months he couldn’t even run a step. He avoided surgery and has been in rehab since.

“The calf muscle was injured. The muscles were strained badly and it was very difficult to try an operation,” he told Running Times. “I didn’t do this. But the recovery was long and then the treatment also. I tried to run on it, and everything is good now.”

He now says he’s ready to race in two months.

“Now my training after such a long injury, it is good,” he says. “I am running 9 or 10 miles a day now. I am doing my base training now, background training. Once a day, I run. After one month I will start speed work and I will see about it.”

For More: Running Times