Cragg bows out of 5,000m final

Ireland's Alistair Cragg failed to finish today’s Olympic 5,000m final in Beijing.

Despite leading at the early stages, Cragg struggled to cope with conditions and eventually dropped out.

The race was won by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.

Cragg admitted his failure to finish may have been down to his previous exertions in the 1500m.

He said: “I picked up an injury last week but it definitely didn’t affect the way I ran.

“Maybe it was not cooling down properly after the 1,500m, it was the hamstring and it moved up into the hip.

“When you are fighting an injury it just gets worse. I thought this morning I was going to come here and trot around but I got it quite loose and felt OK going into the race.”