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Olympic Games close with Abera's marathon victory
Gezahenge Abera continued Ethiopia's mastery in Olympic marathoning, winning his nation's fifth gold medal in yesterday's concluding event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
     Abera, the 1999 Fukuoka Marathon champion and last spring's Boston Marathon runner-up, ran 2:10:11 in windy conditions to join Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964), Mamo Wolde (1968) and Fatuma Roba (1996) as Ethiopian Olympic marathon champions. Abera's last challenger, Eric Wainaina, won silver, while another Ethiopian, Tesfaye Tola, earned the bronze. The only American, Rod DeHaven, was 69th in 2:30:46.
     A shocking upset began the weekend, when the seemingly invincible Hicham El Guerrouj was run down by Noah Ngeny in the homestretch of the men's 1500 meters. Ngeny's time of 3:32.07 was an Olympic record, bettering the former mark of 3:32.53 by Sebastian Coe in 1984.
     The Kenyan tradition of never having lost a gold medal in the steeplechase in Olympic Games at which they have participated continued. However, 21-year-old novice Reuben Kosgei was the surprise winner, over veteran teammates Bernard Barmasai and Wilson Boit Kipketer.
     Saturday's first track final produced the finest quality women's 10,000 meters in history. Derartu Tulu, the 1992 Olympic champion, won in 30:17.49 over countrywoman Gete Wami (30:22.48) and defending champion Fernanda Ribeiro (30:22.88). The medalists produced the fourth, fifth, and sixth fastest times in history, as 18 women broke 32 minutes.
     Algerian Nouria Merah-Benida was a surprise winner in a rough women's 1500 meters, which saw American Suzy Favor Hamilton fall to the track suffering from dehydration with about 75 yards to go. She eventually finished last while teammate Marla Runyan was eighth.
     The men's 5000 was another extraordinarily slow affair, with Ethiopian Million Wolde's kick just enough to edge pre-race favorite Ali Said-Sief, 13:35.49 to 13:36.20. The winning time was the slowest since the high altitude Mexico City Games in 1968.
     America's individual gold medalists Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson led the men to victory in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 respectively. Some poor baton exchanges in the women's 4 x 100 were enough of a handicap to prevent the Marion Jones-anchored team from earning more than a bronze medal, but Jones came back to run a fast leg in the 4 x 400 and help give the USA gold there. She became the first woman to win five track and field medals in the same Olympics.
     More details about all the races above appear in our special Olympic section. Plus there are special features on the USA medal count, a "report card" look at the American team and an account of an illegal Olympic Marathon participant. Amby Burfoot's reflections on the Olympics appears in today's feature section.



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