Ethiopian Athletics Federation lifts suspension off athletes – London Olympics 2012
Kenenisa Bekele, the Ethiopian athlete, has recently been cleared by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation in order to participate in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The athlete is an Olympic champion but had been under suspension.
Bekele has been able to bag himself the gold medals in two events that were featured in the Beijing Olympic Games. These events were the 5,000 as well as the 10,000 meters races. Bekele was not only able to secure gold in each of the events; he also holds
the world record in the two races.
In case the suspension had not been lifted from the star athlete, he would have failed to take part in the upcoming Olympic Games. Bekele was not the only one who was placed under suspension, the EAF also placed 34 other Ethiopian athletes in suspension.
It had been a week since all 35 athletes had been put under suspension due to the fact that they had not reported themselves to the training camp that was held for the Olympic Games by the EAF.
After the absence of the 35 athletes, the EAF communicated its stance to the athletes in an email saying that it “has decided any international competition, including Dubai Marathon, is closed from January 20, 2012, until end of the (Olympic) event on August
2012.”
Bekele had given the following statements after he had been suspended, “I really didn't expect such a decision from the federation. It is bad news and we received it during the holidays.”
The purpose of the camp set up by the Ethiopian federation was to upgrade the performance of the athletes as they had not performed up to the mark in the recent events. The most notable of these was the world championship that was held in the South Korean
city of Daegu in the previous year in the month of August.
The Olympic Games are scheduled to take place from July 27 and last until August 12. It would be the third time that the Games would be coming to the city of London in its history making it the first in the world to host the Games thrice.
Tags: