DUBAI // Clearly, Markos Geneti is not your average Ethiopian. Aside from being friends with the legendary Haile Gebrselassie and aiming to run Friday’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon in less than two hours and three minutes, he also does not like injera, the quintessential Ethiopian bread.
Everywhere in Addis Ababa, injera dominates the plate. Gebrselassie himself is a connoisseur of the iron-rich fermented pancake, and when Masterchef South Africa visited the country last year, it was injera the contestants were asked to create. (Gebrselassie was a judge.)
Yet Geneti, 29, avoids it, preferring to fill his stomach with dishes containing beans, pulses and lean meats as hearty preparation for his daily 13km training runs. It is a diet that has served him well.
In 2001, Geneti won his first international title in Hungary over 3,000 metres, in 2002 he took silver at the IAAF World Junior Championships over 5,000m; 2004 saw him win the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix over two miles and, years later on his marathon debut, he crushed the competition in the 2011 Los Angeles roadrace, breaking the course record by almost two minutes.
The LA marathon was held amid a heavy downpour. However, a year later, Geneti arrived in Dubai and was greeted with near-perfect conditions. He finished third in what is a personal best time of two hours, four minutes and 54 seconds.
Gebrselassie, a hero and former international teammate of Geneti’s, won here three times between 2008 and 2010, and his younger compatriot continues to look to him for inspiration.
“When I was at elementary school, I remember seeing Haile running in the street and 15 years later I ran with him when I was selected for the Ethiopian national team,” Geneti said. “That made me very happy. After two years of running with him, we competed at the indoor games in Boston and Haile was first and I was second. Two weeks later, we ran together again in Birmingham and this time I beat him.
“To beat Haile, wow, I was very happy. He gave me a big compliment afterwards, too; he really is a great man.”
Tomorrow, Geneti’s target is to set a new course record of sub-2.04 and he is, he says, “in good shape, with no injuries” and “feeling 100 per cent in good health”.
Yet his strongest competition is expected to come not from an elder compatriot, but rather a young debutant from the streets of Addis.
Atsedu Tsegay turned 22 on December 17, the same week he dominated the field to win the New Delhi Half-Marathon and lower the course record by three seconds.
This will be his full marathon debut and, with the previous two Dubai roadraces having been won by marathon debutants from Ethiopia, Tsegay is hoping to complete a memorable treble for his country.
“I wish to win here and achieve the same success as Ethiopia has enjoyed in the previous two years,” he said through a translator. “I have been training now for three months for this race: maybe around 25km each day. The motivation is to be one of the best in the world, but also to win money and improve life for myself and my family.”
The winner of Friday’s marathon will receive US$200,000 (Dh734,600), with a further $100,000 bonus if the world record falls. The record is 2:03:23, set by Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich in Berlin last September.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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