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| Meselech Melkamu reflects on a successful 2009 and looks ahead in 2010 |
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A. That’s normal for me. Some athletes take a short break, but I prefer to take a longer one. It’s good for me. Q. What do you do in your rest period? A. I switch off from running – actually I stop training altogether. I don’t get bored. I enjoy doing other things. This year, for instance, I went to Dessie [in the north of Ethiopia] for a week and spend time going to church. Q. When was your last race of the 2009 season, and when did you start back training for 2010? A. My last race at the end of the 2009 summer season was the 4 mile road race in Groningen in Holland in October. My first race back was the mountain race in Nigeria at the end of November. I had only started back in training a few days before that. Q. How did you do there? A. I was 3rd behind two other Ethiopians. It was a hard race, it’s so steep at the finish that you end up walking. Q. What other races have you done since then? A. I was in Abu Dhabi for the 21km at the start of January. I ran the first 11km and then dropped out. Q. Why was that? A. I wasn’t intending to finish. I just wanted to see the race. Maybe in the future I will run a half-marathon. Q. Do you like competing on the road? A. Yes, I do, I’ve run lots of road races around the world – Carlsbad, Dublin, Holland, Germany – but now I’m focusing on the track and country. Q. What are your next big goals? A. I want to compete in Doha at the World Indoor Championships, and maybe also in the World Cross-Country Championships in Poland. To get to the world indoors, I need a qualifying time so I’m planning to race over 3000m in Birmingham next month. Q. What were the highlights of your 2009 season? A. Winning the silver medal over 10,000m at the World Championships in Berlin was a big race for me. We had wanted to win all 3 medals – and had not anticipated that a Kenyan would win the race. Q. What went wrong? A. Because we were planning to run the 5000m later in the week, we did not want a fast race. I was thinking that it would be a fast finish, especially since that’s how Meseret often wins her races. We should have made better tactics as a team to beat the Kenyans. Q. You must have been pleased also with your African record over 10,000m? A. Breaking the African record was really special. The Ethiopian record had passed from Derartu to Berhane, and then from her to Tirunesh. For me to break Tirunesh’s record was wonderful. It was an Ethiopian national record and also an African record. Q. The standard of women’s 5,000m and 10,000m running in Ethiopia is now so high, how do you feel about that? A. It is good for the country, but as an athlete it’s also very competitive to make the team. Last year I wanted to run both the 5,000m and 10,000m at the Berlin World Championships so I always had to think about running a fast qualifying time. First, I ran in Ostrava (14:36), then after my 10,000m in Utrecht (29:53) I ran in Oslo (14:38). After that I knew I would get a place in the team. Q. Will it be different this coming summer with no major championship to aim for? A. Well, we do have the African Athletics Championships in Kenya in June, and I want to retain my 5,000m title there from two years ago. Apart from that, I will be running lots of Diamond League races. I need to compete in at least 5 or 6 in order to qualify for the overall prize. Q. With whom are you training now? A. We don’t have any training now as a national squad, so I’m doing all my training alone. Q. Don’t you have a group or club to train with? A. Not right now. It’s not as I like it. I have a pacemaker for my track sessions, but other than that I’m running a lot by myself. Q. Who is coaching you? A. When we are with the national team, I take my training from Dr. Woldemeskel. But at the moment I’m just coaching myself. It seems that nowadays there are so many athletes here in Addis and not enough coaches to go around. Q. How are you investing the money you have won through running? A. In Ethiopia we do two things. We try to help our families. And we build our own homes. I’m doing both of these. I have started to build a house on the west side of Addis Ababa. Q. You are one of the few athletes from the Amhara Region to have made it to the top. How does that feel? A. My path to the top was not always easy. It is true that most of the top athletes (and coaches) are from the Oromia region. But I am proud of what I have done – along with other athletes from my region such as Wude Ayalew and Sentaheyu Ejigu. I also like going back to my home town of Debre Markos and make sure that I do this at least once every month. This always reminds me of the good start I had in running. |
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