Hail Gebrselassie!

Gebrselassie versus Tergat in the 10,000m at the Sydney Olympics. What a race it turned out to be, as Gebrselassie beat Tergat in a close finish. A mere nine-hundredth of a second separated the two runners. Over to A. Vinod.

2000: GEBRSELASSIE V TERGAT (ATHLETICS)

Ever since the 5,000m and 10,000m races were introduced at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, they have always attracted the attention of the track and field enthusiasts the world over. The exploits of athletes such as Hannes Kolehmainen, Paavo Nurmi, Vilho Ritola, Emil Zatopek and Lasse Viren captured the imagination of the athletics fans before the gifted runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and other North African countries came to the fore.

Today, the distance events are synonymous with the wiry and tireless Kenyan and Ethiopian runners who have been ruling the roost for quite sometime now. It was no different at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Paul Tergat of Kenya clashed in the 10,000m for the second successive time at the Games.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Gebrselassie defeated Tergat with an unconventional approach by breaking away from the pack with five-laps remaining. However, four years later, in Sydney, the two runners confronted each other in a thrilling showdown that eventually produced the closest finish for the 10,000m in Olympic history.

Going into the race, the tiny Gebrselassie was unbeaten over the distance for seven years. And besides the 10,000m world mark, he also held the world record in 5,000m. The Ethiopian, though, was not in the best of form as his preparations for the Games were affected by a nagging Achilles’ tendon injury. In fact, he was not even sure if he would be able to successfully defend his 10,000m title. However, constant treatment in the weeks before the Games and a new pair of shoes enabled him to race against Tergat, a five-time World cross country champion.

Gebrselassie and Tergat were together in the front pack before the Kenyan took everyone by surprise, moving away from the rest of the field with a massive kick. Gebrselassie responded but going into the final straight Tergat was still ahead. The Ethiopian, however, gathered speed and once again beat his Kenyan rival to the gold. The two runners were separated by a mere nine-hundredth of a second (27:18.20 to 27:18.29).

1996: USA V USSR (GYMNASTICS)

Mary Lou Retton was the first home-grown gymnast from the United States to win the women’s all-around title at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The fact that the gymnasts from the USSR were absent following the Soviet Union-led boycott of the Games was completely forgotten amidst the euphoria of Retton’s unexpected victory.

The win proved to be a shot in the arm for US gymnastics which until then had failed to win even a single individual Olympic medal in the women’s section.

When the Games returned to the US 12 years later, in Atlanta, the Soviet Union had already disintegrated. Russia was the gymnastics powerhouse despite the fact that it had finished behind Romania in the 1995 World Championships.

What gave the Russian gymnastics team the edge was the injury to Anamaria Bican which reduced the powerful Romanians to a team of six.

Things seemed to go right for Russia, which led at every stage on way to the final. But here came the twist, in the form of the Americans, who swung into the first place after producing a near-perfect effort on the bars and created a major upset in Olympic history as they held through their remaining three rotations.

However, the US needed a heroic effort from Kerri Strug to take the honours before the 40,000 yelling spectators at the Georgia Dome. In the final rotation, with the Russians on the floor exercise, the US, despite being in the lead, required a good score on the vault to confirm the title. At that stage, it was not impossible for the Russian team to bounce back — it was capable of scoring very well in the floor exercise as two of its strongest gymnasts were competing in the event.

The pressure, naturally, was on the US gymnasts. And when Dominique Moccanu fell during both her vaults, registering poor scores, the US seemed to have botched its chances of scoring an upset win. And to make matters worse, Strug too fell on her first attempt, injuring her ankle.

Strug was in agony and seemed totally disoriented as she limped back to the start for her final attempt. As the entire arena fell silent, Strug produced one of the most famous moments of the Atlanta Games as she came up with a clean Yurchenko with one and a half twists before landing on both feet and immediately lifting her left leg in pain. Balancing herself on her right foot, Strug saluted the judges and then fell on the floor before she was carried her off the arena.

1960: JOHNSON V YANG (DECATHLON)

Very few athletic events require as much physical versatility as the decathlon, which demands speed, strength and endurance in relentless proportions. One needs to have the qualities of a Sergei Bubka, Al Oerter, Javier Sotomayor, Alberto Juantorena and Carl Lewis to compete in the event at the highest level.

The clash between Rafer Johnson of US and Yang Chuan-Kwang of Taiwan in decathlon at the 1960 Olympics in Rome remains one of the greatest contests in the history of the Games. The two young men were not only good friends and training partners at the UCLA but also had the same coach, Elvin C “Ducky” Drake.

Johnson and Yang displayed a blend of excellence, sportsmanship and goodwill as they were engaged in a heady duel for the gold medal. And even the persistent rain for over 80 minutes failed to dampen their spirits.

As the competition progressed, Yang used his speed and versatility to beat Johnson in four of the five events on the first day. However, it was Johnson who still had the lead — a good 55 points more than Yang — at the end of the opening day, having stayed close to his rival in all those four events and won the shot put. The competitions on the first day had gone on till 11 p.m. and when the decathletes returned to the track the following day at 9 a.m. for the 110m hurdles, both Johnson and Yang had hardly recovered from their fatigue. Yet, both Johnson and Yang continued to fight fiercely as the contest went into the final event — the 1500m.

Yang was still 87 points behind Johnson, who had come up with a career-best 4.10m in the pole vault, and needed to beat his rival in the 1500m by 10 seconds to help Taiwan win its first gold medal in the Olympics. The 1500m, admittedly, was not Johnson’s favourite event, but the American managed to stay close to Yang whose victory margin in the end was only 1.20 seconds.

The competition between the two was so intense that at the end of the race, Johnson and Yang wobbled on for a few yards before they supported each other from falling.

The Italian fans cheered the two decathletes and chanted: “Give them both the gold medal.”