Boston, MA - 2004 Athlete of the Year Kenenisa Bekele will open his competitive 2005 season with something new for him: a race in North America. Bekele's entry in the 3000m headlines the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Saturday evening (29 Jan), his first competitive appearance since the death of his fiancee, 2003 World Youth 1500m champion Alem Techale, earlier this month.

Warm welcome assured

Though the streets of Boston are clogged with snow, inside the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in the Roxbury neighbourhood Bekele is likely to enjoy the same warm welcome given to Haile Gebrselassie last year by Boston's large Ethiopian community.

Bekele set a World indoor record of 12:49.60 for 5000m last year, and was expected to chase the shorter event's world mark of 7:24.90 (set by Daniel Komen in 1998) here. However, after withdrawing from several planned cross-country events for the mourning period, it is less than clear whether even the spectacular Bekele will still have the record in the forefront of his mind.

Should he let the pace slip, he will find himself marked. Meet organizer Mark Wetmore hopes to give Bekele a race. Also in the starting list is Markos Geneti, who was second to Gebrselassie here last year, but defeated the Emperor over Two Miles in Birmingham later that season. Geneti holds the best ever junior mark of 7:40.83, set at Karlsruhe in 2003.

Also in the field are Olympic 5000m finalists Tim Broe, who ran the American Record of 7:39.23 here in 2002, and Alistair Cragg, Irish record holder and twice NCAA champion at this distance. Cragg's training partner and former teammate at the University of Arkansas, Daniel Lincoln, was within a second of Broe's mark in the 2004 season, adding excitement to the race behind Bekele.

Defar returns to Boston for 3000m

Bekele will not be the only Athens gold medallist at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on Saturday; in fact, he won't even be the only Ethiopian gold medallist. Meseret Defar won the women's 5000m in meet-record time (14:53.14) here last year, leading an Ethiopian sweep which posted the sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth fastest times ever--the deepest women's 5000m ever run indoors, but only the second fastest that day, as Berhane Adere had set the World indoor record just hours before in Stuttgart. Sentayehu Ejigu, fourth last year but an Olympian with Defar in Athens, will join Defar to contest 3000m. Defar's best for the distance is also the sixth-fastest time ever.

Kluft and Hayes bring the Athens roll-call to four

A third gold medallist, Sweden's Heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, will contest the women's Long Jump, facing a quartet of Americans including Olympian Grace Upshaw, who bested Kluft by a bare centimetre in Athens. Upshaw finished 10th (6.64m) in the Olympic Long Jump final with Kluft one place back

The women's 60m Hurdles features the Olympic gold and bronze medallists, respectively Joanna Hayes and Melissa Morrison. Hayes, who set the Olympic record at 100m Hurdles in Athens, and two-time bronze medalist Morrison will face Vonette Dixon, second in the 2002 Commonwealth Games for Jamaica, and fellow Olympic finalists Angela Whyte of Canada.

The Shot takes center stage

For the tenth Boston Indoor Games, Wetmore is also bringing the Shot Put into the spotlight for the first time at the event, and four of the five throwers claim the ten longest throws of 2004. Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson, John Godina and Reese Hoffa have won sixteen World and Olympic medals between them. Nelson's Olympic silvers, in Sydney and Athens, have bracketed a time of increased attention to the Shot in America, and the throwers have met the opportunity with close, intense competitions.

Ceplak, Lagat, Krummenacker

Jolanda Ceplak, the women's World 800m record holder opens her 2005 season in Boston. Ceplak who took the Olympic bronze in Athens, ran 1:57.79 at this meet in 2002 to kick off the season which culminated in her 1:55.82 World record which won the European Championships six weeks later. She dominates the line-up for the women's 800m, which also includes rising American star Tiffany McWilliams, and Meskerem Legesse of Ethiopia.

The IAAF's top-ranked miler Bernard Lagat will run that event in Boston, along with Kenyan colleague Laban Rotich, the third-fastest all-time over 1500m indoors. Other milers include Rashid Ramzi, who broke Hicham El Guerrouj's 29-race winning streak last year, and defending U.S. champion Rob Myers.

2003 World Indoor 800m champion David Krummenacker returns to the 1000m, where he defeated Rotich for an American Record in 2002, along with Olympic 800m semi-finalists Berhanu Alemu and Osmar dos Santos.

For more information, visit www.bostonindoorgames.com.