Mersha Asrat, coach to three-time Olympic track champion Kenenisa Bekele, believes his role in the these challenging times is to put a plan in place to “survive the storm.”
With both the opportunity to race – in the foreseeable future – and group training taken away from athletes, he believes this has impacted on motivation. Yet as a coach Mersha Asrat insists he has to remain positive.
“All my athletes need to be strong – a role model for others with their behavior,” he says. “As a coach, I have to tell them that this will pass.”
With no events on the immediate horizon he has advised his athletes to rein back on the training – and he has recommended combining a mixture of endurance running and strength training.
“There are no races happening for some time so this is a time when they can run three times a week alternating with workouts. I’ve given them all individual workouts with a meaning. This is an opportunity to work on their strength exercises, to improve and even become masters of the workout.”
All time worlds cross country king Kenenisa was one of the hottest favorites not only to win Olympic gold medal but also set a new Olympic marathon record time in Japan, Tokyo.