THERE can never have been a more dramatic, more emotional, more entertaining half-hour in Olympic history. At twenty to midnight here last night, Hicham El Guerrouj won the 1,500 metres gold medal that his contribution to the sport craved, emerging triumphant from an epic race. Anyone leaving their seat, satisfied to have seen El Guerrouj right the wrongs of his Olympic odyssey, made a big mistake.
Thirty minutes later, Yelena Isinbayeva won the women’s pole vault in no less spectacular fashion. Like El Guerrouj, she appeared to be fighting a losing battle but snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. In Britain, athletics-watchers are used to seeing Isinbayeva set world records — she has produced them in Gateshead, Birmingham and London this year — and here she completed an extraordinary comeback with one more.
But, first, El Guerrouj. In the past eight years, before last night, he had lost only five races out of 89 at 1,500 metres or the mile. But two had been in Olympic finals and two were on the grand prix circuit this year. The auguries were not good. In 1996, at the Atlanta Games, he fell and, at Sydney 2000, he was beaten into second place by Noah Ngeny, from Kenya.
In his last race before coming here, El Guerrouj was edged out by Bernard Lagat, from Kenya, in Zurich. Now, with Lagat having his own reasons for needing the victory, the rivalry was renewed and the race was just as spectacular but carried, with it, greater meaning. Knowing that he had to run the finish out of his Kenyan opponent, El Guerrouj made his move 750 metres from home.
Lagat stuck to him like a limpet and edged past 60 metres from home. We sighed as the great man seemed caught in another Olympic tale of woe. How we underestimated him. Whether Lagat weakened, or El Guerrouj quickened, it was hard to tell but the Moroccan reclaimed the lead and held his ground, winning in 3min 34.18sec. To go with those being tried by Kelly Holmes, Justin Gatlin and Kenenisa Bekele, this could be another double attempt. El Guerrouj is entered for the 5,000 metres as well.
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Lagat followed in 3:34.30, Rui Silva, from Portugal, taking the bronze with Michael East a respectable sixth for Britain. Lagat was a man no less driven than El Guerrouj. He had missed the World Championships last year while facing a two-year ban for testing positive for EPO. However, the case was dropped after the analysis of the B sample did not corroborate the first finding.
The cold war is alive and well in Russia, Isinbayeva and Svetlana Feofanova disliking each other with intensity. Feofanova seemed to be heading for victory when, having cleared 4.75 metres, her compatriot added a failure at 4.75 to the one she had at 4.70. Boldly, Isinbayeva pushed the bar up to 4.80, knowing that she had just one attempt, and cleared it to a cacophony of cheers. The competition won, she cleared 4.85 and, finally, a world record 4.91.
The look of disgust on Feofanova’s face was emblematic of their rivalry. When the contest was over, she smiled for the cameras but she felt the distaste inside.
In a dramatic women’s 100 metres hurdles final, Joanne Hayes, from the United States, broke the longstanding Olympic record while her expected closest challenger, Perdita Felicien, from Canada, fell at the first. Hayes recorded 12.37sec to erase the Olympic record of 12.38 set by Yordanka Donkova, from Bulgaria, in 1988.