ATHENS, 21 August 2004 — Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia won the Olympic Games men’s 10,000 meters gold medal here yesterday to take the first step toward the possibility of becoming the first athlete since compatriot Miruts Yifter in 1976 to do the 5,000 and 10,000m double.
The 22-year-old produced a devastating burst of speed with just over a lap to go to leave another Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine trailing to win in an Olympic record of 27 minutes 5.11 seconds.
Sihine took silver while Eritrea gained their first ever Olympic medal since gaining independence in 1994 as Zersenay Tadesse took the bronze. Two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie was dropped for a second and final time with four laps to go but he struggled on gamely with an Achilles injury to take fifth place.
Earlier, Italian Ivano Brugnetti strode to victory in the first athletics final yesterday with a commanding performance in the men’s 20km walk. Brugnetti finished second to German Skurygin at the 1999 Seville World Championships but was later awarded the gold medal when the Russian was banned retrospectively after testing positive for a hormone.
“I dedicate this victory to the mother of my girlfriend who is fighting a serious illness,” said Brugnetti, who clocked a personal best of one hour 19 minutes 40 seconds. World silver medalist Francisco Javier Fernandez of Spain was second, five seconds behind, and Nathan Deakes of Australia, the double Commonwealth champion, was third in 1:20:02. “My silver is as good as a gold,” said Fernandez. “This year my coach died and he was like a father to me and I found it difficult to compete here.” World champion and 1996 Atlanta Olympics gold medalist Jefferson Perez of Ecuador finished fourth.
Arron Serene as Devers and Block Struggle
France’s Christine Arron booked her place in the women’s Olympic 100 meters semifinals in impressive style while a couple of champions at the distance struggled to make it through. While 30-year-old Arron declared herself ready to step up the pace two-time Olympic 100m champion Gail Devers and 2001 world champion Zhanna Block scraped in by virtue of being the last two of the three fastest losers.
Devers performance rather cast into doubt her decision to run in this rather than leave open a place for embattled Olympic champion Marion Jones after world champion Torri Edwards’ two year ban for doping was confirmed earlier this week.
The other two Americans showed her up as both qualified as of right, Lauryn Williams winning her race while American champion Latasha Colander was third in hers. She came in behind the surprising Belarus runner Yulya Nesterenko, who timed 10.99 the sixth fastest time of the year — she had run the second fastest in the first round. Devers fellow veteran and longtime rival Merlene Ottey put her in the shade as at the venerable age of 44 the Jamaican-born naturalized Slovenian filled third place behind two of her former compatriots. Arron, though, looked supremely confident as she eased home with Devers clearly in trouble and the French girl clearly believed that she has the potential to add to her sole individual title, the 1998 European crown.
Kluft Heading for Heptathlon Gold
World champion Carolina Kluft lived up to her favorite’s tag on the first day of the heptathlon as she took a commanding lead into the second day. The bubbly Swede produced a competent 100 meters hurdles, a good high jump and a personal best in the shot put before drawing on her last reserves of energy in the final event of the day, the 200m. Kluft has 4,109 points after four events and Britain’s Kelly Sotherton has emerged as her main challenger with 3,869 points. Reigning champion Denise Lewis of Britain was lying ninth after the first day and limped away from her 200m race, although the British team said she was only suffering a mild cramp in her hamstring and would continue today.
Kluft, 21, said she was satisfied with her performance but admitted she had been taken aback by 30 degrees-plus temperatures in the Olympic Stadium on the first morning. “The heat was worse than I expected it to be. My batteries had just run out by the end of the 200 meters. But I was really happy to set a new PB in the shot, using a new technique. Tomorrow I am just going to go for it.”
Kluft opened her challenge in her first Olympics with fourth place in the 100 meters hurdles with a time of 13.21sec, marginally outside her best ever for the event. Then, roared on by thousands of yellow and blue clad Swedish fans, Kluft cleared 1.91 meters in the high jump. In the evening session she threw the shot 14.77m, bettered only by Lewis with 15.33m, then chased Michelle Perry of the United States to finish second in the 200m, crossing the line in 23.27sec to 22.91 for the American.
El Guerrouj Threatens Pace Race in Final
Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj won his opening round of the Olympic Games men’s 1,500 meters from the front as he pleased to cleanly clear the first hurdle on his quest to finally strike Olympic gold here yesterday. The world record holder at the metric mile fell at the 1996 Olympics and was sensationally beaten in 2000 by Kenya’s Noah Ngeny after winning 28 straight finals leading into the Sydney Olympics.
Kenya’s Bernard Lagat, El Guerrouj’s main rival for the gold medal in the blue ribband event, had a bumpier rid in the semifinals. The Sydney Olympics bronze medalist found himself caught up in a pushing and shoving match and ended his race with his left shoe flapping off. “It gets real physical out there, sometimes you have to run a tough race. Sunday will be completely different again, with different tactics,” said Lagat, who came home second in a separate heat.
World high jump champion Jacques Freitag of South Africa saw his slim hope of Olympic gold disappear when he failed to qualify for the final. Freitag could manage only 2.20 meters, not good enough to make tomorrow’s final as a large group of athletes cleared 2.25, a height he failed at three times.
