If he could not hide his emotions after finally becoming an Olympic champion earlier this week with his win at the third attempt in the 1500m, his glory last night was spelt out. “Two, two!” he chanted when he crossed the line, raising two fingers to signal his glory, after producing a finish of epic proportions to beat Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, the 10,000m champion.
The greatest middle-distance runner of all time now stands side by side with the legendary Finn, Paavo Nurmi, the only other man to complete this double, at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
What we had here was a display of perfection. El Guerrouj normally dictates from the front, but on this occasion he bided his time.
Ask any athlete who runs like El Guerrouj, and they will tell you how difficult that can be. When you are used to dominating a race, controlling the pace, increasing and decreasing the tempo when you like, just to sit and wait can be almost painful.
But he did not allow himself to be overcome by an urge to go to the front. There were 1500m left when he moved on to the outside and here the race of the championships developed. With 300m to go, Bekele went in front. Still El Guerrouj did not follow. He waited and as he came level with him with 80m to go, the Morrocan delivered. Bekele did not give up, neither did Eliud Kipchoge on the inside. El Guerrouj held on to win in 13min 14.39sec from Bekele, who was second in 13min 14.59sec with Kipchoge third in 13min 15.1sec.
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The race of the Olympics was left to the final night of the track and field programme, and with it so many possibilities. Eight days earlier, Bekele, the 10,000m world record holder, won a gold medal for that event, putting him in position to win a double of his own.
A year ago in Paris, El Guerrouj and Bekele went head to head over 5,000m at the world championships, where Kipchoge, then only 18, upstaged them both. Last night, though, the occasion saw a different El Guerrouj. Here was a Morrocan running without the need to prove anything — an aspect that made this race a fascinating spectacle. Who would make the break first? Who would set the pace? And would they be so worried about the others that somebody else might beat them both, as surely helped Kipchoge to glory in Paris.
El Guerrouj thrives on his legendary status, which had been secured long before these Games. He has won four 1500m world titles. He is the holder of world records at 1500m, the mile and 2,000m, but to attempt to match what Nurmi had achieved in 1924 only added to the sense of these Games being his ultimate triumph.
It was a captivating night of middle-distance running. And in the men’s 800m, Russia’s Yuriy Borzakovskiy was victorious, winning in a time of 1min 44.45sec. South Africa’s Mbulaeni Mulaudzi came second.