Date:16/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/16/stories/2006101603331900.htm

Sport - Athletics

Haile Gebrrr, who?

K. P. Mohan

Coverage leaves much to be desired

NEW DELHI: The Indian anchor could not pronounce his name. Haile Gebrrr and he fumbled and stopped.

He sounded as though he had heard the name for the first time!

They had brought up the blurb during the live television coverage of the Hutch Delhi half marathon on Sunday to tell us who the World record-holder in half marathon was.

The co-anchor, Englishman Tim Hutchings, an Olympian who has been associated with the London Marathon, mercifully, completed the name of the greatest distance runner of our times. Gebrselassie.

Gebrselassie, as most of us know, is the holder of the World half marathon record at 58:55, set in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, in January this year.

The great Ethiopian was scheduled to make his first ever visit to India as a brand ambassador of the Delhi half marathon, but cancelled his trip at the last moment.

Glittering career

Winner of two Olympics and four World championships titles, Gebrselassie has so far set 20 World records during a glittering career that is continuing at the age of 33. He is now looking to crack the World marathon record.

For the second year running, the DD Sports-Zee Sports coverage of the half marathon event left much to be desired. We hardly saw the race developing.

In between in-house advertisements (on DD Sports) and snippets showing the team hotel, Janpath and its pavement vendors, Jantar Mantar, Delhi Haat and a number of other landmarks in the Capital, the race was practically lost for the viewers.

There was no `chasing pack' if you were watching TV after they started showing Kenyan Francis Kibiwott in front and Zimbabwean Nyasngo Cuthbert a little behind. Throughout the race, no one knew what was happening in the contests involving Indian runners. They did manage to show a bunch of stragglers walking or another bunch jogging.

As the main women's race finished with Kenyan Lineth Chepkirui in front, the commentator saw an Indian male runner near her and presumed that he was the winner in the `home' section. He was not; Ram Singh Yadav was the first Indian male across the line, nearly four minutes earlier.