Day ONE - Fri 20 - Olympic SUMMARY

The first night of finals at the Athens Olympic stadium witnessed the end of one era, but also the beginning of a new one.

Hail the new Emperor

Kenenisa Bekele, in his first race at an Olympics, claimed the 10,000 metres in stunning style, a 53.02 last lap demolishing any challenge that might have come from his Ethiopian team mate and training partner, Sileshi Sihine.

Bekele finished in 27:05.10, and Sihine duly collected silver in 27:09.39, while Zersenay Tadesse, with the bronze (27:22.57), won the first ever Olympic medal of any sort for his young nation, Eritrea.

Bekele’s time was an Olympic record, yet it might have been much quicker had he and Sihine not eased in the latter stages - clearly in an attempt to allow their team mate, and the defending two-time Olympic champion, Haile Gebrselassie, to get back with the pace.

Noble gesture from the younger generation

In what he says would be his final championship track race, Gebrselassie struggled to stay with the leaders, especially after a 2:41.89 fourth kilometre stirred the race to life.

But Bekele’s and Sihine’s noble efforts also ran the risk of losing them the gold and silver, and with four laps remaining, and with Tadesse and Boniface Kiprop poised dangerously, the Ethiopians started to race in earnest once more.

Bekele is but 22 years old, yet he has already six senior IAAF World Cross Country titles, he won the 10,000m World title in Paris last year, and he has wrested from Gebrselassie this summer his 5000 and 10,000m World records. Here, Gebrselassie’s eight-year-old Olympic record succumbed, too, and his champiopnship track career ended with a fifth place finish in 27:27.70.

Gebrselassie, through his stellar career, won two Olympic golds, but never dared attempt the 5000-10,000 double which Bekele is going for here. The 5000m men had better watch out.

In the steps of Damilano

Maurizio Damilano, one of the all-time greats of Race Walking, was looking down with pride on the first day of events in the Olympic stadium, as his Italian compatriot, Ivano Brugnetti, strode to the 20km Race Walk gold medal - his country’s first in the discipline since Damilano’s success at the 1980 Moscow Games.

Brugnetti produced a devastating kick in the last kilometres of the race to break away from Spain’s Francisco Javier Fernandez and Nathan Deakes of Australia. His 1:19:40 is a personal best for the former World champion at 50km. Fernandez was 5sec adrift, with Deakes another 17sec behind.

Jefferson Perez, of Ecuador, the 1996 Olympic champion took a disappointing fourth place in 1:20:38.

Klüft's cruising to gold

The Heptathlon was not decided today, but the fate of the gold medal looked to be determined, as another young star of athletics, 21-year-old Swede Carolina Kluft dominated proceedings in typical vivacious style.

With a first-day total of 4109 points, Kluft is well on schedule to become only the second woman in history, after Jackie Joyner-Kersee, to score more than 7,000 points at the Olympics.

Kluft’s closest challenger is Britain’s Kelly Sotherton, 240 points adrift. Both Sotherton and Kluft are specialist long jumpers who should prosper in Saturday’s opening discipline, which they may need to do, with three rivals, Karin Ruckstuhl, Naide Gomes and Austra Skujyte all separated by a mere 17pts in the race for bronze.

Steven Downes for the IAAF

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