Athletics: Henwood fails to finish 10,000m

9.00am

New Zealand distance runner John Henwood failed to finish an epic 10,000m final.

Henwood was tucked in behind the leaders when the pace increased on the eighth of 25 laps.

After looking comfortable with 69sec laps, Henwood dropped quickly when defending champion Haile Gebrselassie ran a 64sec lap.

Henwood drifted to second last, stepping off the track with nine laps to run when he was in danger of being lapped.

He stayed trackside to watch Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine smash the field to smithereens.

Bekele stormed away in the last 400m to win in an Olympic record 27min 5.11sec. Had Henwood reproduced his best time -- 27min 45.98sec -- it would have placed him seventh.

- NZPA