Kenenisa Bekele added 5000m gold to his 10000m gold in an incredible run at The Bird's Nest Stadium in the Beijing Olympics tonight. He is the first athlete since the legendary Yifter the Shifter won both golds in 1980.
After a couple of 70 second laps, Bekele injected some pace to burn off the first of his challengers. Another quick injection at the 5000m mark brought the pace to sub 63 second laps, which most athlete's bar the African's found difficult to maintain.
At the 3000m mark Bekele again found another gear and most of the field were found wanting as the pace of 59 and 61 second laps again burned off most contenders.
At this stage only five athletes were left with a chance of victory, Bekele (Ethiopia), Kipchoge (Kenya), Cheruiot (Kenya), Kipsiro (Uganda) and Bernard Lagat "America". Of these five it seemed obvious that Bekele was on target for gold and it was a matter of who was going to finish as his runner-up's.
Bekele looking comfortable again pushed the pace burning off 1500m specialist Lagat. He was soon followed by Kipsiro leaving the two Kenyan's and the lone Ethiopian. With 600m to go, still at Olympic record pace Bekele looked comfortable and the only way he was going to lose this race was if the two Kenyan's helped each other around the final lap. However the great Ethiopian knew he was on the verge of becoming a legend and nothing was going to beat him tonight.
At the bell, Kipchoge and Cheruiot were left behind as Bekele found even more pace and accelerated away from his last challengers. Left by himself he raced away much to the delight of the crowd to win in a new Olympic record of 12:57:82 that eclipsed the previous 24 year old record of the great Said Ouita (13:05:59), cementing his status as probably the greatest middle distance runner of all time.
Bekele's achievement's rank right up there with Phelps' and Bolt's and it's a once in a lifetime that you get to see athlete's like these participate. The fact that the three of these men have all become legends at the same olympics only make this olympics seem more special than they already are.
