Ethiopia's three-time Olympic champion is helping to train middle and long-distance runners from southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region as part of Sino-Africa cooperation in sports.
Forty-two-year-old Ethiopian athletics superstar Kenenisa Bekele won both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 10,000 meters at Athens 2004, established a training base in 2012 in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
In July, the Kenenisa Training Base once welcomed the Xizang middle and long-distance running team for two and a half months of intensive training.
"Our team first came to Ethiopia in 2014, as part of the National Plateau Talent Development Program's overseas trainings. Since then, we have been coming to Ethiopia to train. Xizang's athletes are very suitable for training in such an environment," said Kelsang Tsering, coach of the Xizang middle and long-distance running team.
During Ethiopia's wet season, Chinese athletes often brave the rain to shift between various fields at different altitudes, training for up to eight or nine hours at a time. But this also gives these young runners the opportunity to learn key techniques from Bekele firsthand.
"I hope I will join in them and also advise them personally when they are here in Ethiopia," said Bekele.
"Every day's training has been challenging. These two months of training have helped me improve my own performance and I have also learned a lot from the foreign athletes," said Tsering Tsomo, a member of the Xizang middle and long distance running team.
Bekele's spectacular victory in the 2008 Beijing Olympics thrilled the Chinese audience. The distant interaction with Chinese fans on social media over the years has made Bekele interested in helping develop long-distance running in China.
"I got a lot of Chinese fans on social media. More and more fans, runners shared their running experience with me. In the near future, I really hope that I can go to China to meet fans and witness the big growth of marathon culture," said Bekele.
After a tiring day of training, coach Kelsang Tsering and his team members lit a bonfire in the African plateau training base and sang Tibetan songs for Bekele. Although they don't speak the same language, performing the traditional Tibetan Guozhuang dance around the bonfire will surely deepen the friendship between the veteran Ethiopian athlete and the young Chinese runners.
"The people here are so welcoming, making us feel at home. We Tibetans are very hospitable and so are the people here," said Tashi Tsering, another runner from Xizang.
"I want to say thanks to the Chinese organizers who organize races, and the Chinese government also. I'm really happy about this, and I appreciate them. So, keep moving," said Bekele.
Ethiopian athletics superstar helps train Chinese runners
