Posted: August 21, 2004

Athletics: Olympic Record For Bekele, Webb Eliminated From 1500 – Day 1 Recap

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

ATHENS (21-August) -- The biggest applause at Olympic Stadium yesterday, the first day of athletics competition, didn’t come for Greek heptathlete Aryiro Strataki or triple jumper Hristos Meletoglou –-though both received resounding support. It came for two-time defending 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie; first when he was introduced, and again when he finished, courageously if not victoriously, in fifth place in the last track race of his legendary career.

The victor was, as expected, another Ethiopian, Kenenisa Bekele, who, playing his successor’s role perfectly, won in 27:05.10, eclipsing Gebrselassie’s eight-year-old Olympic Record in the process. When he switched into finishing gear some 450 meters from the finish, the only question that remained was how fast his last lap would be. It was a furiously fast 53.02 seconds, creating the illusion that runner-up Sileshi Sihine (27:09.39) was running backwards when his final kick was unleashed.

As predicted, the race quickly morphed into a lesson on team play dramatically, precisely and concisely hammered home by the Ethiopian trio. Gebrselassie was the first to control the pace, when he moved into the lead at the three kilometer point, with Sihine in tow. Kenyan Charles Kamathi, the 2001 World champion, did his best to stay in touch with the leaders as Bekele, running in the middle of the pack until that point, joined them with 17 laps to go. Sihine, last year’s World Championships bronze medallist, took his turn with a lead a lap later, Bekele moved to the front a lap after that, and with 14 laps to go, it was a top-three green and red parade leading the pack, with Sihine leading Bekele and Gebrselassie through the half in 13:50.87.

A handful of others maintained contact, including 22-year-old Eritrean Zersenay Tadesse and this summer’s 10,000m World Junior champion, 18-year-old Boniface Kiprop, both of whom sporadically challenged for lead in attempts to break the Ethiopians’ rhythm. Their efforts proved futile.

The script that would have had the Ethiopians duplicate their podium sweep from last year’s World championships began to unravel though when, with seven laps to go, Gebrselassie began to labor, the anguish clearly visible on his face. The 32-year-old, who chose to run despite an Achilles injury, suddenly dropped off the pace. Sensing his teammate’s troubles and to the overwhelming delight of the crowd, Bekele and Sihine slowed the tempo, allowing Gebrselassie to catch the leaders two laps later. But it was a short-lived experiment as Gebrselassie again fell behind as soon as the tempo was increased. With Gebrselassie now relegated to the shadows, Bekele and Sihine forged on to produce their nation’s first top-two finish in the event.

Tadesse claimed a surprise bronze medal in 27:22.57, well ahead of Kiprop’s 27:25.45, a season’s best. Gebrselassie came next, clocking 27:27.70.

“I felt tired all through the race,” Gebrselassie said, adding that he hadn’t trained in two weeks. “It was very painful to finish the race.”

“During the race, we worked as a team and wanted to win all the medals for Ethiopia,” Bekele said. It was quite a hard race. I don’t know how I got the energy for the final sprint. I gave everything I had in the last lap because I wanted to break the Olympic record.”

Zersenay, who is based in Spain, has only been training seriously for two years, and his podium finish came as a big surprise to him as well. “Realistically, I should have finished between fourth and sixth place. I never expected to get on the podium.”

As in Paris last year, the Kenyan squad was demoralized. John Cheruiyot Korir was a distant sixth (27:41.91), Moses Mosop (27:46.61) seventh, and Kamathi (28:17.08) 13th. It was the first time a Kenyan failed to earn a medal since 1980 when the nation boycotted the Games in Moscow.

Dan Browne, who ran in the lead pack briefly during the opening laps, was the first American to reach the finish, clocking 28:14.53. Abdi Abdirahman (28:26.26) was 15th, while Dathan Ritzenheim, still on the mend from a stress fracture, did not finish.

The opening round of the men’s 1500 was more notable for the runners who did not advance, U.S. champion Alan Webb among them. Running a self-described “stupid” race, the 21-year-old from Reston, Virginia, was a distant ninth in the second of three heats clocking 3:41.25, missing the cut off by just 11/100s of a second. Unable to remove himself from the tightly-knit pack, Webb found himself boxed in or running very wide on several occasions, while at the same time experiencing the physical brutality of international racing for the first time in his still-young career.

“It was worse than a football game out there,” he said. “I just got banged around. I was trying to stay to the outside and stay out of trouble and it just got me in trouble more. I should have been more aggressive on the second lap and maybe out towards the lead or in the back. It was just a stupid race.”

Spaniard Reyes Estevez won the race in 3:39.71, with Bernard Lagat second (3:39.80). Finishing third was New Zealand’s Nick Willis, a former teammate of Webb’s during his brief stint at the University of Michigan.

In the first heat, won by world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj in 3:37.86, another American got a dose of physicality as well. Grant Robison was tripped up early in the race, and finished 11th. After a protest was lodged, he was reinstated and will compete in the semi-finals. Charlie Gruber ran from the front for much of heat three, but eventually finished ninth in 3:41.73, like Webb, barely missing the cut-off. Commonwealth champion Michael East of Great Britain won the race in 3:37.37.

This evening’s schedule includes the semi-finals of the women’s 800 meters and the opening round of the steeplechase. In non-distance action, the final of the women’s 100 meters will also be contested.