Marathon man’s tactics pay off

By EUGENE BINGHAM

More than 42km run, just 20 seconds between first and second. But in marathon winner Gezahgne Abera's eyes, he had romped home.

The Ethiopian kept up a record of close finishes with his victory in the last event of the Games on Sunday night.

In his only other major win, Abera snuck home six seconds in front of second place and this year he clocked the same time as Elijah Lagat in coming second at the Boston Marathon.

On Sunday he crossed the line alone, a home straight away from Kenya's Eric Wainaina and a minute ahead of countryman Tesfaye Tola.

At 22, Abera became one of the youngest Olympic marathon winners, using age-old tactics to craft out a run that gave Ethiopia an incredible clean sweep of the men's distance races.

On top of the marathon, Ethiopians won the 5000m and 10,000m titles too. Ethiopians scored a one-two in the women's 10,000m too.

Abera looked comfortable throughout the race and was helped out by his fellow Ethiopian Tola.

He remained with the front pack that reeled in early leader Tiyapo Maso of Botswana, then strode out with Wainaina, Tola and Briton Jon Brown.

By 35km, Brown began to stray from the pack. He toughed it out but finished a heart-breaking fourth, seven seconds from a medal - all four finishers were spaced out around the final 400m of the Olympic Stadium before Abera broke the tape.

With just two kilometres to run, the final order was fixed. Abera broke Wainaina with a surge that gave him an uncatchable lead. His time was 2 hr 10 min 11 sec, 50 sec off Carlos Lopes enduring 1984 Olympic record.

For Wainaina, the medal was justification for his controversial selection in the Kenyan team. He was only picked in the team when selectors dropped their original choices just two months ago, accusing them of being complacent and lazy.

Wainaina, a bronze medallist in Atlanta, was chosen alongside Kennedy Cheruiyot and Osoro Ondoro.

Ondoro was later replaced by Boston marathon champion Elijah Lagat when Ondoro was shot and wounded in a robbery.

Neither Lagat or Cheruiyot finished yesterday.

Two of the most popular finishers last night were Australian Steve Moneghetti and East Timor's Calisto da Costa.

Moneghetti farewelled his legion of fans with a 10th placing in 2hr 14 min 50 sec, waving to the crowd as he strode across the line in special green and gold shoes.