Track: Sprint finish for 10,000m champion

The reigning Olympic 10,000m champion had to wait until the last five metres of his race last night to secure a repeat victory.

Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, regarded as one of the greatest distance runners of all time, had to sprint to the line to pass Kenya's world cross country champion Paul Tergat in the 10,000m race.

Tergat had surged to the lead with 250m to go and held Gebrselassie by several metres entering the home straight. But the pint-sized champion wanted the gold too much.

Tergat pushed Gebrselassie out to lane three in the dash for the finish but succumbed within two strides of the line. Assefa Mezgebu secured bronze for Ethiopia.

Gebrselassie's time, 27m18.20, was 11 seconds slower than in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, Maria Mutola, an Olympic veteran at the age of 27, struck the first gold at an Olympics for Mozambique last night with an accomplished victory in the women's 800m at the Sydney Games.

The powerful, muscular runner clocked 1m56.15. Austria's Stephanie Graf (1m56.64) snatched silver, edging Britain's Kelly Holmes (1m56.80) into bronze.

Romanian Gabriela Szabo won the women's 5000m title in a new Olympic record time of 14m 40.79s.