Hicham El Guerrouj: Wins Olympic 5000m gold in Athens four days after the 1500m, becoming the first man since Paavo Nurmi (1924) t

Hicham El Guerrouj won the Olympic 5000m gold in Athens, four days after taking the 1500m title, to complete the first middle- and long-distance double since Paavo Nurmi in 1924.

A slow pace, then a furious sprint

The race unfolded at a crawl. World record holder Kenenisa Bekele took an early lead but refused to push the tempo, passing 1000m in only 2:58.46.

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge eventually forced the pace, and the contenders bunched tightly until the final lap. El Guerrouj moved toward the front as the bell sounded.

With 200m left, Bekele broke clear by several metres. El Guerrouj first ran down Kipchoge, then overhauled the Ethiopian in the final strides to stop the clock at 13:14.39.

Two tenths of a second, eighty years of history

The winning margin was just 0.20 seconds. Bekele took silver, while Kipchoge earned bronze another 0.11 seconds behind.

The victory placed El Guerrouj alongside Nurmi as the only men to strike gold across the 1500m and 5000m at a single Games. It also denied Bekele the chance of his own 5000m/10,000m double in Athens.

A career crowned in five days

The 5000m gold came four days after El Guerrouj claimed the 1500m title, his first Olympic gold after a fall in the 1996 final and silver in 2000. He was the reigning four-time world champion over the shorter distance.

He had owned the 1500m world record since 1998, and at these Games he delivered the tactical masterpieces that had eluded him on the sport’s biggest stage.

A decade of dominance, condensed into a five-day span in the Greek heat, finally received its Olympic conclusion.