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Sunday, October 1
Abera pulls away in final two miles
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Gezahgne Abera, a 22-year-old Ethiopian
who was runner-up this year in the closest Boston Marathon ever,
pulled away over the last two miles Sunday to win the men's
marathon, the final event of the Olympic Games.
|  | | Ethiopia's Gezahgne Abera crosses the finish line to win the marathon. |
Abera fought a strong headwind nearly all the way on the tough,
26.2-mile course to win in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 11 seconds.
Kenyan Eric Wainaina, the bronze medalist in Atlanta in 1996,
was second in 2:10.31. Tesfaye Tofa of Ethiopia took third with
2:11:10.
Ethiopia has a great marathon tradition and won three in a row at the Olympics in 1960, 1964 and 1968. Abebe Bikila won in 1960
and '64, and Mamo Wolde won in 1968, but no Ethiopian had captured
the gold since then.
Ethiopia hadn't even medaled in the event since Wolde won the
bronze in 1972.
Tiyapo Mosa, the only runner from Botswana in the race, shot out
to a huge lead from the moment the starting gun was fired and the
100 runners took off in North Sydney in gusty, 70-degree weather.
He stretched the lead to more than a minute as the runners
crossed the Sydney Harbor Bridge and ran through the central city
as thousands lined the course to cheer on the runners. Mosa's lead
was down to 35 seconds at the halfway mark, though.
And shortly after that, as the course reached the difficult
hills of suburban Sydney, the lead pack overtook him.
With six miles to go, the lead pack was down to four runners -- Abera, Tola, Wainaina and Jon Brown of Britain.
With about four miles to go, Brown faded, and the three eventual
medalists were running alone. Brown, whose experience mainly is in
cross-country races, not marathons, finished a surprising fourth in
2:11.17.
As the medalists entered Olympic Stadium, they received a warm
but less than rousing reception from the crowd gathering for the closing ceremony Sunday night.
The victory was a runaway compared with what Abera had
experienced in his previous two best races. The most dramatic was
in Boston, where he and winner Elijah Legat of Kenya were both
clocked in 2:09:50.
Last year, Abera defeated Mohammaed Ouaadi of Morocco by just
six seconds to win the Fukuoka Marathon.
The Olympic marathon is the only event missing from the imposing
long-distance resume of the great Kenyan runners, and for a while
it looked as if Wainaina would end the drought.
Wainaina, 26, had survived a tumultuous selection process in his
country after initially not being named to the Kenyan marathon
team.
The original Kenyan team was to be Moses Tanui, Elijah Lagat and
Japhet Kosgei. But all three were replaced by Wainaina, Kenneth
Cheruiyot and Ondoro Osoro.
The federation said there were concerns about the fitness of the
initial team members, but others felt the decision stemmed from the
runners' criticism of the federation.
Osoro was dropped from the team after he was wounded by a
gunshot in a carjacking. Lagat was placed back on the team in his
place.
When the race ended, the two Ethiopian medalists paraded around
the stadium waving tiny flags from their country. They jogged and
hardly seemed winded by the grueling race.
American Rod DeHaven finished 69th. Defending Olympic champion
Josia Thugwane, the first black South African to win an Olympic
medal, finished 20th.
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