Haile to Bekele: new emperor of 10,000m is crowned

SPRINTING the final lap of the 10,000m, Kenenisa Bekele ended the reign of fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie last night with an Olympic-record winning time of 27 minutes, 05.10 seconds.

Bekele broke away from another compatriot, Sileshi Sihine, with a little more than a lap to go. Sihine finished second, about 30m behind Bekele, followed by Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea.

Gebrselassie, 31 and suffering from an Achilles injury, had won the last two Olympic 10,000m races. He finished fifth in what was probably the final track appearance of a glorious career.

Bekele, 22, will try to become the first man in 24 years to complete the distance double by winning the 5,000m next Saturday. The first round of the 5,000m is Wednesday, with the final three days after that.

The only other men to win both the 5,000m and 10,000m at an Olympics are Emil Zatopek (1948), Vladimir Kuts (1956), Lasse Viren (1972 and 1976) and Miruts Yifter (1980). Yifter, an Ethiopian, was an inspiration for Gebrselassie - who in turn became Bekele’s idol and training partner.

Bekele and Gebrselassie ran together for parts of the race. After the finish, they hugged and then joined hands as they took a victory lap with Sihine beneath the green, red and yellow flag of their homeland.

Gebrselassie now plans to move up to the marathon.

Merlene Ottey won her first Olympic medal 24 years ago, as a youngster from Jamaica with big, fast dreams.

It was 1980 in Moscow, when the US boycotted the games and the Europeans were expected to sweep the 200m. Ottey surprised them all, winning bronze and barely missing silver.

Since then, she has become one of the most decorated track Olympians of all time, with eight medals. The 44-year-old sprinter is hoping to pull out one final medal in her seventh Olympic appearance.

Ottey is not as fast as she used to be, and now she’s representing Slovenia. But she’s just happy to still be around, a feeling shared by her competitors.

“Hey - she’s 44,” said Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas. “I’m proud of her!”

Ottey is used to breezing straight through qualifying heats into the finals. But times have changed.

Now, Ottey has to push herself simply to make it through each heat. Last night, she moved into the semifinals after placing third in her quarter-final heat in 11.24 seconds, well behind heat winner Sherone Simpson.

Ottey was 11th fastest of the 16 semi-final qualifiers, better than the 11.31 of 37-year-old American Gail Devers, who snagged the final semifinal spot in her fifth Olympics.

“It is different,” Ottey said. “I’ve never gone to the Olympics where I had to fight in each round just to get through. So this is the first. Usually I’m fighting for a medal, now I’m fighting go through each round.”