After Bernard Lagat, the defending double-world champion at 1500 and 5000 meters, shocked everyone by failing to make the 1500-meter final here by two hundredths of a second, he was quoted as saying that he would go all-out to win the 5000 meters. This meant that he would have to take on the world record-holder, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who had already won the 10,000 meters here and would now attempt to become only the sixth man to win both races at an Olympics. Bekele usually seems unbeatable, but he has been comparatively vulnerable in major-championship 5000-meter races, especially when he doubles back after a 10,000. In both the 2003 World Championships in Paris and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Bekele allowed the pace to lag enough to enable runners without his endurance but with as much raw speed to keep contact until the last homestretch and outsprint him. Hicham El-Guerrouj of Morocco accomplished this in each race; Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya beat them both in Paris.[More]
Tags: Distance Running, NYRR, Olympics, Running, Stuart Calderwood, Track & Field, Women's Olympic Marathon
