Ethiopian Wins Men's Marathon
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ Gezahgne Abera, a 22-year-old Ethiopian who was runner-up this year in the closest Boston Marathon ever, pulled away over the last two miles Sunday to win the men's marathon, the final event of the Olympic Games.
Abera fought a strong headwind nearly all the way on the tough, 26.2-mile course to win in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 11 seconds.
Kenyan Eric Wainaina, the bronze medalist in Atlanta in 1996, was second in 2:10.31. Tesfaye Tofa of Ethiopia took third with 2:11:10.
Ethiopia has a great marathon tradition and won three straight at the Olympics in 1960, 1964 and 1968. Abebe Bikila won in 1960 and '64, and Mamo Wolde won in 1968, but no Ethiopian had captured the gold since then.
Ethiopia hadn't even medaled in the event since Wolde won the bronze in 1972.
Tiyapo Mosa, the only runner from Botswana in the race, shot out to a huge lead from the moment the starting gun was fired and the 100 runners took off in North Sydney in gusty, 70-degree weather.
He stretched the lead to more than a minute as the runners crossed the Sydney Harbor Bridge and ran through the central city as thousands lined the course to cheer on the runners. Mosa's lead was down to 35 seconds at the halfway mark, though.
And shortly after that, as the course reached the difficult hills of suburban Sydney, the lead pack overtook him.
With six miles to go, the lead pack was down to four runners _ Abera, Tola, Wainaina and Jon Brown of Britain.
With about four miles to go, Brown faded, and the three eventual medalists were running alone. Brown, whose experience mainly is in cross-country races, not marathons, finished a surprising fourth in 2:11.17.
As the medalists entered Olympic Stadium, they received a warm but less than rousing reception from the crowd gathering for Sunday night's closing ceremony.
The victory was a runaway compared with what Abera had experienced in his previous two best races. The most dramatic was in Boston, where he and winner Elijah Legat of Kenya were both clocked in 2:09:50.
Last year, Abera defeated Mohammaed Ouaadi of Morocco by just six seconds to win the Fukuoka Marathon.
The Olympic marathon is the only event missing from the imposing long-distance resume of the great Kenyan runners, and for a while it looked as if Wainaina would end the drought.
Wainaina, 26, had survived a tumultuous selection process in his country after initially not being named to the Kenyan marathon team.
The original Kenyan team was to be Moses Tanui, Elijah Lagat and Japhet Kosgei. But all three were replaced by Wainaina, Kenneth Cheruiyot and Ondoro Osoro.
The federation said there were concerns about the fitness of the initial team members, but others felt the decision stemmed from the runners' criticism of the federation.
Osoro was dropped from the team after he was wounded by a gunshot in a carjacking. Lagat was placed back on the team in his place.
When the race ended, the two Ethiopian medalists paraded around the stadium waving tiny flags from their country. They jogged and hardly seemed winded by the grueling race.
American Rod DeHaven finished 69th. Defending Olympic champion Josia Thugwane, the first black South African to win an Olympic medal, finished 20th.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
