Athletics: Bekele's bid for a slice of history

By EUGENE BINGHAM

After 24 laps of the track in Athens, Kenenisa Bekele pursed his lips and ran like no one ever has in an Olympic 10,000m final.

He tore off a 53s last lap to stake claim to an Olympic record, just another mark to go with his world bests over 10,000m and 5000m.

Bekele's blistering last lap to win the 10,000m final last weekend in 27m 5.10s was enough to mark him out as one of the stellar performers of the Olympic athletic programme.

So it seems just greedy that tomorrow morning, the Ethiopian three-time world cross-country champion runner will set out to do something no one has been able to do since 1976.

Bekele will attempt to add the 5000m to his 10,000m title, a tough feat last pulled off by Finnish running great Lasse Viren.

Aged just 22, Bekele is already used to dismantling the records of legends. During his short track career, he has already overtaken the man he grew up in awe of, countryman Haile Gebrselassie.

Gebrselassie, suffering from an injury, finished fifth behind Bekele in the 10,000m final, a disappointing result following his golds in Atlanta and Sydney.

But Bekele plays down any suggestion he is surpassing Gebrselassie's achievements.

"It's difficult to say that," he said this week. "Gebrselassie is always my role model, but first I am trying to pass myself."

To achieve the double, Bekele will have to overcome another star of the track attempting a double, Hicham El Guerrouj, winner of the 1500m final on Tuesday.

The race will be the classic match-up between the miler and the distance specialists, a neutral meeting ground where runners from opposite ends of the track have traditionally been able to test themselves against each other.

Bekele should have the better of El Guerrouj - their best times are 13s apart - and El Guerrouj had to run two hard races in his 1500m and 5000m heat one night after the other mid-week.

El Guerrouj ran in Bekele's heat on Wednesday, with the two great runners warily tracking each other.

Bekele won in 13m 21.87s, with El Guerrouj a comfortable third. Both men ran carefully, though they will no doubt throw everything at each other in the final.

They will not have the race to themselves, mind you, with current world champion Eliud Kipchoge also in the field.

If Bekele does pull off the 5000m-10,000m double, it will answer critics who say he is more of a cross-country runner than a track athlete, a criticism he is aware of.

"I find the track difficult and to do well you have to be experienced," he told a magazine.

"I don't have that track experience so we'll have to see how it goes."

By the end of 12 and a half laps of the track tomorrow morning, the world will know whether Bekele, the young man in a hurry, has earned himself another place in Olympic track history.