During an illustrious career, the Ethiopian endurance running great has bagged three Olympic and 17 senior world titles. The world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder takes time out to chat to his younger self as well passing out his golden words to upcoming world great athletes.
Young Kenenisa,
From an early stage of your athletics development, you acknowledged the importance of discipline. Continue to listen to your coaches, remain focused, and this will help you enjoy many great successes.
Not many athletes will achieve what you did on the global stage at such a young age. Your career will evolve into one of the greatest in history. You will win three Olympic gold medals and five outdoor world titles on the track. You will set world 5000m and 10,000m records and, looking in from the outside, many might assume you would change very little.
However, young Kenenisa: you do not always train perfectly. Sometimes you will under train and you may not always have access to the best physiotherapy. These may prove crucial in achieving your career goals.
Oh, and on the subject of physio. Try to look after your body. You may feel bulletproof – especially during some of your greatest triumphs – but ignoring physiotherapy will create problems in the aftermath, especially during your marathon career. Injuries can – and will – cause huge frustration.
During times when you struggle with injury, you may feel despondent and demotivated. You may not always be fully committed to carrying out the correct rehab exercises. But this will only make the marathon an even more difficult event to master.
Maintaining fitness levels and full health as an athlete in your mid-30s will be hard. But don’t give up. Stick with it and aim to sign off your career on a high.
Listen to your body and make the necessary sacrifices. If you do that, you can fulfill your marathon potential and finish your career with a flourish.
Kenenisa Bekele’s advice to younger Kenenisa
Seyoum Kebede boss The Emperors’ new season
Confederation cup participants Fasil Town handed a two year contract to Seyoum Kebede who succeeded popular Coach Wubetu Abate. Seyoum’ debut match is an international return leg match in Darussalam. In the meantime inquest of a fast return to the Premier League Mekelakya appointed Zelalem Shiferaw.
Seyoum who led the Army side Mekelakeya to a miraculous knockout and Super Cup double trophies at the start of the season sacked at midseason following number of shocking defeats including the 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Adama Town. Out of employment for the past six months Seyoum finally landed a dream job at Fasil Town currently engaged in international fixtures. “It is going to be hard to Seyoum for he replaced Wubetu who really performed a miracle to put Gondor in Ethiopian football map” Seyoum’s former teammate at Giorgis suggested.
In the meantime relegated Mekelakya signed former Sidama Coffee, Hawssa Town, Diredawa Town and Debub Police boss Zelaem Shiferaw. Though his recent time records stand impressive resigning in midseason from Diredawa and Debub Police, The Army side gave him a chance to help them win promotion at the end of the coming season.
“Although appointing a seasoned Coach is ideal for winning promotion, Zelalem aka Mourinho is not the right choice for his bad habit of walking out in midseason” a former Mekelakya player currently a talent scout at Ethiopia Medin suggested. “I assure you he will quit at the end of the first round” he added.
Shipping Lines building demolition raises eyebrows
Youth organized to demolish houses around the La Gare area told the Woreda administration that they were unhappy about being sidelined from demolishing the Shipping Lines and Varnero Buildings.
In hard times Ethiopian still profits
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam says they experienced a revenue growth of 17 percent for a total of USD 3.7 billion.
In a speech to employees, Tewolde said net profits had decreased compare to the 6.8 billion birr 2017/18 profit. The crash and subsequent suspension of the 737-800 Max due to safety issues cost the airline a lot of money. In addition, engine problems in the Boeing 787 led to a shortage of those planes which made Ethiopian reduce flights.
Tewolde added that instability in the county, a slowing economy and the decline of exports contributed negatively to their revenue. The flagship carrier transported 12.1 million passengers in the reported period, up by 13 percent from the previous fiscal year. There were 110,220 flights 80 percent of which departed on time.
Freight grew by 8 percent from previous fiscal year to 400,371 tons.
The airline started six new international destinations including Asmara, Istanbul, Mogadishu, Manchester, Jakarta and Moscow in the stated period.
“The profitability of the airline industry has been up and down. Many airlines in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and almost all African airlines have experienced losses. We are continuing our profitability though it is not like before,’’ Tewolde said in a statement he sent to the employees of the airline.
“The 25 percent increase of oil, during a global economic slowdown has also reduced the number of passengers from other African countries. The Ebola virus in DRC and its exaggerated reports also cost us money,” he added.
The chief executive also announced that his management decided to increase salaries of the employees by 15 percent.
He went on to discuss Ethiopian’s vision 2035, which would expand passengers, staff, and destinations. “We delivered the 2025 vision plan except for the revenue seven years ahead of schedule and now we are working on another plan.”
Recently, the government decided to sell an undisclosed amount of the airline’s share which has been monopolized by the state.
Ethiopian Air Lines often referred to as simply Ethiopian, is Ethiopia’s flag carrier and is wholly owned by the government. EAL was founded on 21 December 1945 and commenced operations on 8 April 1946, expanding to international flights in 1951.
