ATHLETICS: THERE'S BEEN a lot of talk this past week about great Olympians and their great medal counts, but what is the true measure of greatness? The smile on the face of Haile Gebrselassie yesterday suggested it's not all about winning.
When the three Ethiopians embraced each other at the finish of the Olympic 10,000 metres, two of them had won medals, and the third hadn't - yet there was still debate as to who was the greatest.
Kenenisa Bekele, at age 26, had improved his Olympic record by four seconds, running 27:01.17, and had the gold medal wrapped up from the moment he surged to the front with one lap remaining. As great an Olympic 10,000-metre victory as ever witnessed.
His compatriot Sileshi Sihine took silver, also a repeat of four years ago, in 27:02.77, followed by two Kenyans. There was an Eritrean in fifth, and then came Gebrselassie, who at age 35 had run 27:06.68 - the fastest 10,000 metres of his four successive Olympic appearances, enough to leave his infectious smile perhaps the enduring image of the race.
If, as they say, the Bird's Nest will go down as the one of the great Olympic arenas, it was only proper Gebrselassie got to share in it. That he failed to medal hardly mattered.
What is certain is that after Abebe Bikila and Miruts Yifter showed them the way, now the Ethiopians are truly unconquerable in distance running.
They first created The Little Emperor (Gebrselassie). Then they created the successor. Then they turned this Olympic final into a worshipping ceremony of them both. Bekele's victory was even more emphatic than in Athens four years ago, yet he just did all he needed to do to win, sitting comfortably among the leaders for 24 of the 25 laps before pressing on the accelerator.
Later, he humbly entertained the question of whether he had surpassed Gebrselassie. "I have many years of winning events before I can do that," said Bekele. "To win Olympic gold, for the second time, is all my dreams come true."
Gebrselassie had moved briefly into third at the bell, but not surprisingly was gunned down on the back stretch by the two Kenyans, Micah Kogo eventually getting the better of Moses Masai.
We had the nerve to ask him was he happy with his sixth-place finish. "What do you think?" and he pulled the biggest smile this side of the Yangtze River.
"The only problem, as you see, is my last 200 metres. I need to work on my speed some more. The only thing was my finish. But I ran here for many reasons, including myself. Just to keep running, and you know, for pleasure, and maybe win a medal. I'm really happy to come here and run the 10,000 metres, in a wonderful stadium, with wonderful atmosphere, and wonderful Olympics."
He's been a part of the last four Olympic 10,000 metre finals and they've all been rated as great races. We had the nerve too to ask him if this was definitely his last.
"Well, I said four years ago that was my last. You never know. It is very difficult to say this is my last 10k. But now, I'm looking forward to the Berlin marathon, in September. I know the Kenyans have plans to break my world record, so I want to make it more difficult for them."
Before jogging off down the mixed zone, still with that unmistakable smile, still the greatest distance runner of all time, Gebrselassie left with a last word about his successor. "You see, Bekele ran a wonderful race. But we had a joke this morning. I said I would go to the front and relive the race, and as if I was going to win."
While Ethiopia couldn't quite win all three medals last night, Jamaica could, taking a first clean sweep of the medals in the women's 100 metres - and putting it all down to the "Bolt effect".
Shelly-Ann Fraser posted a life-time best of 10.78 seconds and was followed by Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart, as they squeezed the US into fourth (Lauryn Williams) and fifth (Muna Lee).
It took a photo to separate second from third, and there was a further delay over the validity of the result when the Americans appealed against the decision not to call a false start - and it certainly looked a little dodgy. But the results stood.
