Athletics · 2000 · Sydney, Australia
Nine Hundredths of a Second
Two of distance running's great rivals take an Olympic 10,000m final to a last-metre lean, decided by nine hundredths of a second.
0.09 seconds
Winning margin
27:18.20
Winning time
2 (1996, 2000), both to Gebrselassie
Rivalry Olympic finals
Haile Gebrselassie and Paul Tergat had done this once already, in the Olympic 10,000m final in Atlanta in 1996, where Gebrselassie won by a margin almost as thin. Four years later in Sydney they ran it again, closer still.
Tergat went on the final backstretch, surging past the field and opening a gap that looked, for a moment, like it might finally be enough. Gebrselassie hauled it back over the last 100 metres, drew level in the closing strides and dipped for the line to win by 0.09 seconds, 27:18.20 to 27:18.29. No Olympic 10,000m has finished closer.
Tergat left Sydney with a second consecutive Olympic silver behind the same man, the rivalry having produced two of the most replayed distance races of the era and no win for him in either. Gebrselassie went on to break the marathon world record twice in the following decade.
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