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I had the privilege of seeing him edge out Paul Tergat in a sprint finish to win his 2nd straight 10,000 Olympic gold in Sydney. Myself and Dave were far up in the stands but I will never forget the sight of that unbelievable sprint finish. Gebrselassie only lost 3 times to Tergat in 25 races.
2000 Sydney, Olympic 10,000m final
"I did not expect Tergat to attack then," says Gebrselassie. "Usually he goes from about two kilometres out, but that day he waited and waited until the last 200m.
"When he went past me on the home straight, I thought he had won the gold. I thought that was it.
"But I decided I had to try to just track him to the finish line to make it as hard as possible for him. I did not think I could win."
"Tergat did everything he could," says Haile. "He was simply unlucky that it was not his day. I wish that they could have given out two gold medals that day."
"But it was so special to win like that, in that fashion in an Olympic final. I will never forget it."
Source: BBC
I saw him make his marathon debut in London in 2002 when he finished 3rd to Khannouchi. This injury has caught him my surprise I think, he still believed he could take 1 minute of his marathon word record of 2hr 3 min 59 seconds.
Retirement press conference Print this post
2 comments:
My recollection of that night in Sydney is that it was the final event of the evening and the stadium was less than half full. We might have even moved seats to get a better view of the finish Tom? On that same night (if it was the same one) we also saw Sonia finish 2nd to Szabo; Cathy Freeman win her 400m gold (remember the hooded bodysuit?) which was the most electric sporting event I've ever witnessed in my life. Also, Michael Johnson in his final individual Olympic appearance. Unforgettable.
Back to Gebrselassie. He ran a 25.4 seconds last 200m, astonishing stuff at the end of 10k. From Wikipedia: "At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he became the third man in history to successfully defend an Olympic 10,000 metres title. The narrow Olympic victory over Kenya's Paul Tergat came down to a blistering final kick, with Tergat's 26.3 second final 200 metres being topped by Gebrselassie's even faster 25.4. The winning margin of victory was only 0.09 seconds, closer than the winning margin in the men's 100 metre dash final."
Some good news, Gebrselassie returned on Apr 17th 2011 winning the Vienna City Half Marathon, covering the 13.1 mile distance in one hour and 18 seconds. The marathon world record holder intends to run in the Olympics in London.
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