| Perhaps Haile Gebrselassie was getting rather bored with winning 10,
000m. races because in 1999 he only contested one. It was, however, the
World Championships, a title he had won in 1993, 1995 and 1997. and it was after all his 'property'!
- well that was how it must have seemed to the rest of the world's
middle distance runners. So he dutifully turned up in Seville on the
24th of July to claim his customary gold medal, winning in his usual
manner. A last lap that no-one could match after they had given up
trying to take the 'sting' out of him during the preceeding twenty-four.
Second as usual was Paul Terget of Kenya, pictured above on the left
hand side of the photo, in 27min. 58.56secs, third came his fellow
countryman Assefa Mezegebu in 27min. 59.15secs. and fourth Girma Tola in
27min. 02.08secs. also of Ethiopia. Haile? Well he won in 27min.
57.27secs. in conditions not condusive to fast times, a supposed 33
degrees (but hotter - ask the writer) and humidity at 43 per cent. So
slow was the time that it ranked Haile 36th on the 1999 world's fastest
times for 10, 000m. He was better placed on the 5, 000m. ranking list -
at No. 1 following his 12min. 49.64secs. in Zurich on 11th August where
he beat World 5000m. Champion Salah Hissou 12min. 53.45secs. Earlier
in the year he had recorded a indoor world record time of12min. 50.38
secs for the 5000m. (George Herringshaw) |