Athletics: Champion of champions

By EUGENE BINGHAM in Athens


"Hee-sham! Hee-sham! Hee-sham!" they called, pressing flesh against the chest-high fence that separates the champions from the hordes in the belly of the Olympic Stadium.

The world wanted a glimpse of the most deserving 1500m Olympic champion in history, heading to the changing room a euphoric man after finally vanquishing the ghosts of Sydney and Atlanta.

From behind, the mob of journalists crushed forward when Hicham El Guerrouj stopped near us.

Up close, he was gaunt, save for the perfectly shaped legs of an athlete. Veins bulged and still pulsed in his calf muscles.

On his white spiked track shoes was the star of the Moroccan flag, a sign of his love for his country and his King, who had phoned him after his 1996 Olympic loss and prophesied, "My son, do not cry. One day you will be a champion."

There was another call from the new King yesterday, though a much, much happier conversation took place.

But it was the deep love of his family that thrust him to a king-like status in Athens.

"I am really happy - I feel like a baby, a 3-month-old baby," he rattled out in French.

With that, he blew a kiss and moved on. The baby he spoke of was his 3-month-old daughter, Hiba, a name meaning "a gift from God".

It was Hiba and his wife he had run for, he said, and so in the rapturous moments after he had won he searched the roaring crowd for them.

Hiba is unlikely to remember the actual moment her father bent to kiss her tiny head before an audience of a billion, but it is a moment that will be treasured in Olympic history.

An Olympic champion he may finally have been, but right then he was simply a father sharing a delicate moment of joy with his daughter.

It was a touch that elevated El Guerrouj's victory in the greatest contest of the Olympics above a mere sporting achievement. It stirred spirits and raised souls. In these times of division, a humble Muslim man had united the world in celebration.

Throughout the race, just before midnight, the crowd carried El Guerrouj on a wave as he confronted the Olympic jinx threatening to trip him again. For the past decade, he has been virtually unbeaten, but for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic finals. He came to Athens weaker than he has been for a long time, suffering from respiratory problems and the dented pride of a rare loss in Rome a few months before.

An emotional man, it was a certainty that he would cry - but would they be tears of joy or the sobs of despair?

After 800m, El Guerrouj floated to the lead to jolt the race from a slumber, much as he did in Sydney. With 400m to go, he kicked hard, but Bernard Lagat, of Kenya, was sucked along in his slipstream. It was all going to come down to the home straight.

Into the final 100m, El Guerrouj said, he looked up at the screen and saw what was coming.

"I could feel Lagat coming up behind me and I knew the strength that he had. It was like an avalanche, really, and I was giving it 101 per cent."

As the metres quickly evaporated, Lagat's chest moved ahead. Not again!

The next moment is freeze-framed in my mind: Lagat is straining hard, neck muscles tensed as he hoovers in every molecule of oxygen he can to fuel his legs, his eyes popping out of his head as if every part of his body is determined to get to the line first.

El Guerrouj, the most graceful of runners even at this supreme level of effort, cocks his head and looks right with his bulbous brown eyes.

"The first thing I thought about was Sydney because when the end was coming up in Sydney, I didn't have the energy to start up again," he said.

From somewhere inside this time he mustered enough reserves to produce a telling final kick.

When he crossed the line, at last smiling in the Olympic arena, then falling to the track crying in delight, it became obvious that everyone had wanted him to win, even his rivals.

Lagat, who nearly earned a gold to match his bronze from Sydney, knelt beside El Guerrouj on the track and the two men embraced.

"Hicham was only missing one thing and that was Olympic gold," said Lagat.

"Knowing how he really wanted this so badly, I was really happy for him."

There could be no more worthy victor in Athens than "Hee-sham", hero of Morocco, king of the track.