Betlhem Desalegn Belayneh is hoping a hamstring injury she aggravated last month will not dash her hopes of competing in a second Olympic Games.
The 24-year-old four-time Asian Championships gold medallist pulled her hamstring after winning a race in Heusden, Belgium and is a doubt for the 1,500m in Rio this month.
“I was injured, same place as last year but I’m fighting back to do better,” Belayneh told Sport360 ahead of the Games. “I am not 100 per cent but I am doing good.”
Belayneh was 12th in her heat in the 1,500m at London 2012, clocking 4:14.07. Since then, she has won four Asian gold medals and has improved her PB to 4:03.70.
“Since London, a lot of things have changed and I have gained more experience,” she says.
“I ran a PB in Bejing in May and I was so happy. I felt that I could have done even better after that, but most of my races since then have been more tactical so I was running more like 4:06, 4:05. But surely I feel that I belong with the best in the world when I’m running times like that.
“I am trying to manage my injury, and make sure I go to Rio feeling confident and ready.”
Belayneh has been training alongside a group of elite athletes, including Genzebe Dibaba, under coach Jama Aden, who was arrested in Barcelona with EPO allegedly found in his hotel room. Has that disrupted her training ahead of the Games?
“I still train with Jama Aden. He got arrested but only for one day, so nothing has changed here,” she says.
