Haile on his heels

Gebrselassie is struggling to overcome a heel problem

Ethiopia's reigning 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie will run in shoes specially designed to overcome a heel problem which threatens his title defence.

But while Gebreselassie has physical problems his coach Waldemeskel Kostre fears the world record holder at 5,000m and 10,000m faces an even bigger mental battle.

Gebrselassie could go into the 10,000m underprepared after picking up the achilles tendon injury while training last December.

Spikes

His last competitive race was over 5,000m in Zurich in August, and since then he has limited himself to training outings, run without spikes.

A precautionary scan in Sydney a week ago showed the injury to be completely healed, but coach Kostre fears the tendon coud tighten up after a stiff training session, and threaten Gebrselassie's blistering pace.

To overcome these fears Gebrselassie has ordered a special pair of shoes with extra heel support but his coach says the man who has set 15 world records since 1994, and has not been beaten over 10,000m since 1993, is struggling to win the mental battle.

"The key thing here is whether he is mentally prepared. He stopped completely for six weeks and that made him depressed for a while," said Kostre.

Mistake

Gebrselassie's last competitive outing in Zurich came just six days after winning a 5,000m race in London and Kostre admits: "that race was a mistake. The injury was still there in London and he shouldn't have run in Zurich so soon afterwards."

The Ethiopian's chances of retaining his title were boosted by the withdrawal of one of his biggest rivals, Morocco's world 5,000m champion Salah Hissou who pulled out on Monday after failing to shake off an ankle injury.

"We are very sorry Salah will not be here. He is a good competitior and it is right to have the best competitiors at the Olympic Games," said coach Kostre who feels Gebrselassie's main competition could come from Belgium's Mohammed Mourhit and Kenyan Paul Tergat.