Tadesse benefits from better fit

ASMARA, Mar 7 (Reuters) Eritrean runner Zersenay Tadesse first made an impression at the 2002 world cross-country championships even though his shoes were several sizes too large.

Now, with an Olympic bronze medal behind him and the benefit of sponsorship, better shoes and state-of-the-art training facilities in Spain, the modest Tadesse is looking ahead with confidence to next month's world championships.

His Spanish coach Jeronimo Bravo believes the 24-year-old Tadesse is one of the best athletes in the world.

''He is still improving, he is still growing,'' Bravo said.

''The best is yet to come.'' Tadesse started his sporting career in cycling but fell out with his team mates in late 2001 and switched to running instead.

In just a few months, Tadesse jumped from winning races at school to coming 30th at the 2002 world championships in Dublin, despite the shoe handicap.

''I was given some running shoes but they were the wrong size,'' he said of the 12-km race in which he came 30th with barely any training against athletes from all over the world.

FIRST MEDAL Tadesse has since won Eritrea's first Olympic medal, a bronze in the 10,000m at the Athens 2004 Games, and second place in the 2005 world cross-country championships in France.

''God gives me the strength,'' he told Reuters, shrugging his shoulders.

Tadesse grew up in the high-altitude village of Adi Bana in southern Eritrea and spent hardly any time in the capital, Asmara, before going to the 2002 world championships and moving to Spain a month later.

''When I was a little boy, I used to play football and I used to run each way between home and school,'' he said, adding that the run in each direction was roughly 16km.

After his cycling colleagues booted him out of their team, Tadesse floated quickly upwards through the top ranks of Eritrean runners but stayed second to Yonas Kifle at Eritrea's national championships and in Dublin.

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