by Larry Eder
Special 10,000m Likely for African Champion Nguse Amlosom and Others
By Sabrina Yohannes
A one-off 10,000m race is likely to be held in Europe to allow the reigning African champion Nguse Amlosom and other athletes to seek qualifying times for selection to the Beijing world championships.
Amlosom thought he had met that criterion for the Eritrean team to Beijing on May 29, a fortnight before he ran the New York Diamond League 5000m, where he took third.
“I ran the 10,000m in Eugene,” said Amlosom in New York on the weekend, at the tail end of his two-week stay in the U.S. between American races. He finished eighth in the Pre Classic 10,000m in a personal best 27:26.53, well under the 27:45.00 entry standard for Beijing.
“Then I found I had been disqualified for stepping on the inside,” said Amlosom, who now needs to find a race in which to run a qualifying time for selection to the August 22-30 IAAF championships. His personal best is 27:28.10 from 2012 and he ran 28:11.07 in 2014 when winning at the African championships in Marrakech.
“The problem is that there aren’t many 10,000m races, although there may be one in Hengelo in Holland in four days’ time,” he said on Saturday. But any options he might have had to race in Europe soon after New York are further limited by his lack of a visa.
Amlosom’s Spanish manager Julia Garcia is determined to solve the problem.
“We are trying to look for another 10,000m but at the moment there are none organized, so we are organizing one ourselves in Spain,” she said. “But first, we must get a Schengen visa for him to come to Europe.” Spain and 25 other European countries share the Schengen visa.
“To get the visa, he needs approximately 10 days,” said Garcia, who hasn’t set a date for the tentative 10,000m race in Spain but is eager to see the matter resolved. “As soon as possible,” she said. “I have the place, and I have everything.”
She said the agent of Japan’s Portland-based Suguru Osako was interested in the race she was looking to organize, and others might be too. Osako narrowly missed qualifying at the Pre Classic 10,000m, where he ran 27:45.24.
The window to earn qualifying times for the 2015 world championships 10,000m and marathon is wider than the window for shorter and more frequently-contested events. Marathon and 10,000m times clocked at any point in 2014, and prior to the closing date for entries in 2015, are eligible for entry into those Beijing races; the qualifying window runs from January 1, 2014 to August 10, 2015.
A finish in the top 15 senior places at the 2015 world cross country championships also counts as a Beijing 10,000m qualifier, and so does a current area or continent title – like the 2014 African title Amlosom earned — but the decision about which athletes to enter in the world championships rests with national federations.
Selection to the Eritrean team requires an actual 10,000m qualifying time, Amlosom said.
He’s looking to secure that, and will also be hoping to continue his trend of improving his placings at global competitions over the last few years.
A 15th-place finisher at the London Olympic 10,000m, he placed eighth over the distance at the 2013 world championships. In 2014, after clocking a personal best of 59:39 in February, he took fifth at the world half marathon championships in March, and then bronze in the Continental Cup 5000m in September.
Garcia said Amlosom might also run a 5000m in Europe in July.
In New York last weekend, he chased after the leaders on the final lap and seized third place from Olympic bronze medalist Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya on the line. After he finished in a personal best 13:30.22, Amlosom’s outstretched arms and wide grin expressed his joy over his position.
Once the hurdle of getting a 2015 world championships berth is overcome, Garcia believes the Eritrean can do well in Beijing too.
“He’s a good talent, he’s a good runner,” she said. “In the 10,000m, in normal conditions, he can be top three.”
