Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia won the Olympic Games men’s 10 000m gold medal in Athens on Friday to take the first step towards the possibility of becoming the first athlete since compatriot Miruts Yifter in 1980 to do the 5 000m and 10 000m double.
The 22-year-old world 10 000m champion produced a devastating burst of speed with just more than a lap to go to leave compatriot Sileshi Sihine trailing to win in an Olympic record of 27 minutes and 5,11 seconds.
Sihine took silver while Eritrea gained their first Olympic medal since gaining independence in 1994 as Zersenay Tadesse took the bronze.
Two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie was dropped for a second and final time with four laps to go but he struggled on gamely with an Achilles-tendon injury to take fifth place.
”I am very happy about the win. I didn’t just beat Haile, I beat everybody and I was very motivated to go fast on the last lap,” said the champion.
Gebrselassie said he felt his injury during the race.
”There was a lot of pain. I wanted to finish in the top three but I couldn’t do it,” said Gebrselassie. ”I haven’t really trained for three weeks but for Ethiopia to get gold and silver is fantastic. Bekele did a great job.”
Bekele, who has broken both of Gebrselassie’s world records in the 5 000m and 10 000m this year, led for the first two laps till Rwanda’s Dieudonne Disi took the pace-setting duties up with Bekele and Sihine settling back in fifth and seventh while Gebrselassie was in the rear.
The slow pace took its toll as talented Tanzanian John Yuda crashed to the floor after being clipped on the back of his heel but managed to regain his position among the leaders.
An impatient Gebrselassie then decided to take up the front-running duties, surging from the back to the front with 19 laps remaining, but was then replaced by Sihine with Yuda shadowing them.
Bekele was the next Ethiopian to go to the front with 15 laps to the finish and his burst strung the field out with Yuda vainly sticking to them.
A lap later, he was gone retreating down the field and was ultimately to drop out holding his right hip.
The three Ethiopians were to the fore with only Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop and Kenyan Moses Mosop capable of keeping with their relentless upping of the pace — but Mosop too was dropped, leaving just Kiprop to try and break up the clean sweep.
With seven laps to go Gebrselassie’s hopes of a golden farewell, before he takes up marathon running, were gone as, grimacing, he was left for dead by the other three.
Kiprop then went to the front with six laps remaining.
Bekele started to look around anxiously for help from Sihine but it only allowed Gebrselassie back in to the group along with Tadesse and the tiny Ethiopian was dropped for the second and final time a lap later.
The game was up for Kiprop and Tadesse with three laps remaining as Bekele cranked it up another notch and it was farewell to them and welcome to a phenomenal athletics talent. — Sapa-AFP
Special Report: Olympics 2004