HICHAM El Guerrouj wrote his name large in the annals of Olympic history last night when he bestrode athletics’ middle and long-distance disciplines by completing a 1500m and 5,000m double gold.
And in so doing the Moroccan also laid claim to being the African king of the track after taking on Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, his main contender for that crown and defeating him in another of those classic encounters which these Games have thrown u
p.
The watching world had held its breath only days before at the gazelle-like qualities of Bekele who had darted round the last lap of the Olympic 10,000m final to announce himself as the rightful successor to Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie as Olympic champion.
It was full expected that Bekele would add yet more lustre to his reputation by joining the true modern greats of long-distance running by adding the 5,000m to his earlier gold and joining the likes of his compatriot Miruts Yifter and Lasse Viren of Finland.
But if that was the script then El Guerrouj had not read it and completed a special double of his own which had athletics watchers speaking of him in the same breath as the immortal Pavel Nuurmi, the Finnish flyer of the 1920s who completed the same feats of endurance.
"This is a historic victory that I dedicate to the Moroccan people, to the Arab world and to the Muslim world," he said to tumultous applause from the sporting Greek crowd.
The always flowing El Guerrouj timed his run to perfection crossing the line in the always respectable time of 13 minutes 14.39 seconds a metre ahead of the stunned Bekele.
Kenya’s world junior champion Elind Kipchoge, who at 19 with Bekele, is surely the future of this distance, took bronze.
El Guerrouj has not been around the tracks of the world over the last decade without learning something about tactics and psychology though and it was his experience which saw him through against the younger men. El Guerrouj played what was the perfect waiting game under the Olympic stadium floodlights, allowing the Ethiopians and Kenyans to dictate the early pace as the race surged and slowed.
With 800 metres to go, the big three were at the front of an eight-man group. By the bell, six were left in contention as the teenager Kipchoge pushed off the front. Bekele burst past with 200 to go, Kipchoge flailing desperately on his inside and El Guerrouj smoothly making ground on the outside of him.
The Moroccan went clear in the final 30 metres and even had the luxury of easing up before raising two fingers, one for each of his Athens triumphs, as he crossed.
The race was a re-run of the world championships 5,000 last year when Bekele and El Guerrouj had approached the starting line having both won their earlier events. But they had been caught out on that occasion by the Kenyan wunderkind who stole the gold to upstage them both.
For Bekele, the disappointment of not fulfilling what his illustrious predecessor Yifter did in Moscow 24 years ago will cut deep but this is a truly unique athlete in his own right who will go to the plate again in Beijing four years hence.
Just consider his achievements over the past 12 months including a 10,000 world title, world records at both 5,000 and 10,000, a third successive double at the cross-country world championships and the Olympic 10,000 title.
Last night, though, belonged to El Guerrouj, and rarely will there be a more popular winner of an event than the quietly-spoken North African who at least reaped the rewards for a remarkable career over one of the most gruelling events in track and field.
After missing out on gold in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney 2000, he had eventually fulfilled his dream by winning the 1500.
Few thought that he would have the drive to lift himself again but then success breeds success, as one Ms K Holmes can testify too, and El Guerrouj justly got his rewards last night.
