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Not many athletes get the chance to adorn themselves with an entire nation without winning a race, but middle distance runner Gelete Burka commanded the sympathy of the athletics community and millions of her compatriots after the World Championships in Berlin. Going to the final of the women's 1500m after cruising through in the heats as one of the pre-race favorites, Burka led for a lap in the final before Spaniard Nathalia Rodriguez, who would go on to win the race, pushed her to the ground 150m from the finish. Burka picked herself up in a desperate bid to catch the front runners, but could only finish 10th. Rodriguez was later disqualified following an appeal by the Ethiopian federation, but it did little to help Burka's medal aspirations.
"It was really painful and I don't know if I will ever forget this," she recounted in a recent interview. "I feel I could have won that race if the Spanish girl did not push me."
But Burka's efforts did not go unnoticed by hundreds of fans at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. A few hours after the 1500m final, they gathered at the home of the Ethiopian Ambassador in Germany for a victory party where the daughter of one of the Ethiopian diplomats presented Burka with a medal uttering, "They may have pushed you, but you are always the champion for me."
A cheerful Burka talked at length with members of the Embassy about her loss and was given a round of applause by attendees and an encouraging message by the ambassador.
"For us, you are the winner," said Ambassador Kassahun Haile. "You are a champion. Let this not put you down."
Upon the team's return to Ethiopia two days later, the Ethiopian Minister for Youth and Sport Aster Mamo spoke about Burka at the official welcome back ceremony, saying, "You may have lost the race, but for us, you are the gold medalist. Ethiopia is really proud of you."
Fans were not the only ones who sympathized with Burka. So did archrivals.
"I really feel sad for Gelete," said Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal, the eventual race winner. "What the Spanish girl did was wrong and she deserves to be disqualified. What happened to Gelete could have happened to any one of us in the race. If she had not been tripped, I am sure she would have won a medal."
Burka said the support she has received is inspiring.
"Such things urge me to run more and to give 110% to my country and our national flag," said Burka. "I have learned that life needs to continue and that the next race is more important than the previous one."
The next race for Burka happens to be an important one. She will again be one of the medal favorites in the 1500m at the World Athletics Final, the culmination of the IAAF Grand Prix circuit, in Thessaloniki, Greece this weekend.
While Burka says she is now ready to go, getting back to training and recovering from the effects of the Berlin fall, however, were not quite easy according to her husband Tadele Gebremedhin.
"It was really difficult for her," he said. "She got back home and cried for two days. It really worried the family because we had never seen her upset like this."
After taking four days to recover, Burka started training with the goal of regaining some success before the end of the season. And following discussions between her manager Jos Hermens and organizers of the Memorial Van Damme, Burka penciled in a world-record attempt at the seldom-run 2000m.
"She could do it because she is full of frustration," says Meert. "Apart from the fact that she could not win in Berlin, Burka was in very good shape."
Thanks largely to cold and windy conditions at the King Badouin stadium in Brussels, Burka was nearly five seconds off the mark set by Irishwoman Sonia O' Sullivan in 1994, although she improved the African record at the event when clocking 5:30.19.
"If you go for a world record, you can't be happy with this time," Burka told reporters after the race. "Of course the weather is not ideal and I'm still in very good shape.
Thanks to a season's worth of stellar performances, which include victories in Hengelo, Eugene, and Lausanne and sub-4-minute clocking in the 1500m in Hengelo and Monaco, Burka finds herself amongst the gold-medal favorites for the World Athletics Final.
But Burka knows -- perhaps better than most -- that victory will not come easily.
"It will be difficult to run fast in Thessaloniki," she said. "The race will be like a championship without pacemakers and so it will give me the chance to win a tactical race. It is not the same, but it somehow makes up for Berlin if I win there."
While many athletes will finish their seasons in Greece, Burka will make the long trip to Shanghai, China for the Golden Grand Prix and a possible crack at the Ethiopian record over the 1500m.
"I still want to do something special this season," she said. "I still feel that I can run the Ethiopian record (3:58.43 by Kutre Dulecha in Monaco 1998) or get close to the African record (3:55.30 by Hassiba Boulmerka in Barcelona 1992)."
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