Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele crushed the opposition as he cruised to 5,000m gold on Saturday, adding to the 10,000m title he won eight days ago.
Bekele led all the way and sprinted to a new Olympic record time of 12 min 57.82 sec to beat Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge and Edwin Cheruiyot Soi.
It is the first time the long distance double has been secured for 28 years.
Bernard Lagat, who had been tipped to push for gold, drifted off the pace with two laps left to finish ninth.
Uganda’s Moses Ndiema Kipsiro was fourth, while Ireland’s Alistair Cragg pulled up half-way through the race.
Although outside his world record of 12:37.35, Bekele’s time beat the previous Olympic mark of 13:05.59 set by Morocco’s Said Aouita when he won gold in 1984.
Bekele said: “I am so happy with this performance. This is very special to me. It has been hard work for so many years.”
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FORUM | 1 Comment
What a year folks! Congrats Lij Kenenisa and the rest of the people.
[Reply]
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 AM