Men’s 10 000m final
In 10,000m terms this was the night of the big fight between two of the greatest distance runners in history both of whom were running their last major championship 10,000 metres. In the green vest from Ethiopia the defending Olympic champion and world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, and in the red vest from Kenya the challenger and Olympic silver medallist from four years ago, the five times world cross country champion, Paul Tergat. This pre-race billing did not disappoint and the final quickly developed into one of the all time encounters on a par, if not better than Miruts Yifter’s duel with Lasse Viren in the Moscow final of 1980.
Aloys Nizigama of Burundi took the pace from the gun and immediately Gebrselassie moved in behind and the opening laps were reasonably quick, opening with a 62 seconds but gradually settling down circuit by circuit to a 65 second sixth lap.There was no change to the lead during this period. It was after this that Tergat made his first significant move easing himself into sixth, with Belgium’s world cross country champion Mohammed Mourhit making a move into fourth at the same point.
When 3,000 metres was reached (8:08.03), Nizigama faded back slightly in what was a rather erratic night of racing on his part. The lead was taken by the Kenyan Patrick Ivuti and Gebrselassie was content to remain on his shoulder in second with Tergat seizing the moment to move to the Ethiopian’s heels in third place. At this point Gebrselassie’s compatriot Assefa Mezgebu was in fourth and Mourhit back down to fifth.
With 14 laps to go Morocco’s Said Berioui and Kenya’s John Korir also came into contention. Then just before the half way mark (13:45.88mins) Nizigama once again moved back up to the lead and momentarily increasing the pace, only for USA’s Abdihakim Abdirahman to over take him before he was in turn passed by earlier leader Ivuti of Kenya. All these various moves were covered by Gebrselassie who seemed to be controlling all those running before him with invisible reins.
Ivuti and Nizigama then took turns to exchange the lead for a while. Then with 7 laps to go, Tergat took the initiative, and was shadowed immediately by the Ethiopian world record holder. Back again came Ivuti and as he began to weaken, Korir took over from his Kenyan team mate. In one lap the original pack of 13 had been cut down to just 6 - the three Kenyans, Berioui, Gebrselassie and Mezgebu.
Korir started to push the pace hoping to break the awesome finishing kick of Gebrselassie and when 9000 metres was reached, the race was purely a Ethiopian verses Kenyan duel match - three Kenyans verses two Ethiopians. This was nearly an identical scenario to the Moscow Olympic10,000m of twenty years before, when the last Ethiopian distance master MirutsYifter had battled with Finland’s two time Olympic champion Lasse Viren, with three Ethiopians battling against two Finns.
At the bell - 26:23mins - Mezgebu played the Ethiopians first card and moved into the second lane at Gebrselassie’s shoulder, so that any attack from the Kenyans would have to come round very wide into the third lane. Well, that’s exactly what happened because in the next 100m metres Tergat sprinted past both Mezgebu and Gebrselassie. Around the bend and down the final straight Tergat and Gebrselassie tussled side by side with the Kenyan holding a slight advantage over his arch rival. Then with the whole stadium crowd on its feet urging them on, Gebrselassie found another ounce of speed from somewhere and managed to out dip Tergat on the line to retain his Olympic gold medal in spectacular fashion. The last lap had been an outstanding 55 seconds and the last 200 metres an equally impressive 26 seconds! The final order - Gebrselassie, gold in a season’s best of 27:18.20mins; Tergat, silver in 27:18.29 mins; Mezgebu, third also with a season’s best of 27:19.75 minutes.
So Gebrselassie retained his Olympic title, joining a short but illustrious list of just three men - Nurmi, Zatopek and Viren - who had managed the same feat in the Olympics. Gebrselassie’s gold was Ethiopia’s third 10,000 metres title in Olympic history.
