Posted: July 28, 2006

Athletics: Lagat Defeats Bekele In London 5000M

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

With a final 100m surge that only an Olympic medalist in the 1500m could muster, American Bernard Lagat outlegged Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele to win a stacked 5000m at tonight's Norwich Union London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in London, an IAAF Super Grand Prix event. Pushing hard down the backstraight of the final lap, Bekele had dropped everyone but Lagat, and Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge and Augustine Choge. Rounding turn three, Bekele surged again leaving only Lagat within striking distance as the rounded turn four. Heading for home, Bekele drifted a bit to the right, but Lagat pushed past him on the outside anyway to hit the tape first. He closed the race with a sub-52 second lap. Lagat's time of 12:59.22 was just outside of Bob Kennedy's USA record of 12:58.21. Bekele finished in 13:00.04, with Choge holding on for third in 13:00.74. NOTE: Assistant Editor Bob Ramsak is in London and will provide a full report later today --Ed.

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