There will be talk of shoes, of training, of carbohydrate loading, of gels, of digestive training. There will be talk of technology. But to fully understand a 10,000m final that broke all the barriers and all the mechanisms of what is known as long-distance athletics, we must talk, above all, of the suicidal sacrifice of three Ethiopians, Selemon Barega, Yomif Kejelcha and Berihu Aregawi, who, taking turns in solidarity at the front, imposed a pace of 2m 40s per kilometre, hell. Thanks to them, very generous pacemakers who asked for nothing in return, no less than the first 13 classified went under 27 minutes, an extraordinary limit. And the first nine went under 26.50, which only 35 athletes in history had achieved. And three of them lowered their national record, including the Spaniard Thierry Ndikumwenayo, who, with a time of 26m 49.49s, improved his personal best by 37s and left the Spanish record at the level of the stars, almost a minute less than the extraordinary 27m 48s with which Mariano Haro, who died so recently, left the national record by finishing fourth in Munich 72.
With that mark, the Spanish athlete would have won all the Olympic and world finals in history. In Paris 2024, on a magical purple track, ideal temperature, extraordinary atmosphere of a public hungry for great athletics, he only managed to finish ninth, one step away from the finalist diploma, the scholarship, peace of mind. Never has such a frustrating position, a ninth place in an Olympic final, been paid for so dearly.
Joshua Cheptegei will be the main subject of discussion. The bottom of his legs has definitely settled into the atomic age.
Joshua Cheptegei, 27, had never run with such precision as a heart surgeon, with such cleanliness, with such clarity of ideas. With a grain of malice, one could add that he was more of a forensic scientist than a surgeon, given the ease with which he performed the autopsy on the Ethiopian strategy. With his victory, the Ugandan athlete took it all: the Olympic title he was missing (he was the 5,000m champion in Tokyo), and also the Olympic record, 26m 43.14s, erasing the name of the myth Kenenisa Bekele (27m 1.17s), to add to the world record, 26m 11s, which he broke in unusual conditions of pandemic and electronic hare, in Valencia without an audience on October 7, 2020. And, above all, he took revenge for the Tokyo final of the 10,000m, in which the Ethiopian strategy, a slow race with jerks, allowed him to triumph over Berega ahead of him.
In Paris, it was a different story. 9,600m of Ethiopian ballet, and 300m of stormy weather, every man for himself. A lightning-fast dance (she crossed the 5,000m in 13.23s), choreographed by splendid legs, extremely light in the forest and on the bounce on the lavender-coloured track. Metronomic regularity, in the rhythm and in the regularity of the relays: 1,000m, Barega (2.42), 2,000m (Kejelcha, 5.22), 3,000m, Barega (8.02), 4,000m (Kejelcha, 10.43), 5,000m, Aregawi (13.23), 6,000m, Barega (16.04), 7,000, Kejelcha (18.45)… This was followed by a short phase of confusion, of glances, of the accordion of the forest: regrouping of legs, stretching, and Ndikumwenayo, the Spaniard who was born in Burundi 27 years ago and who in his debut with the national jersey won bronze at the European Championships in Rome, always chasing, approaching and moving away, successively, always looking for the finalist position, tenacious in his stride, her splendid long legs, a beauty.
Spanish record
“I came calmly, as if this were a rally,” says the athlete, who has lived in Valencia for years. “So I wasn’t nervous thinking that it was my Olympic debut. Only when the race started, I said to myself, now the Games are starting. And, of course, I’m super happy to have broken the record.”
A restless Canadian, Mohammed Ahmed, came in to touch the nerves, taking the lead in the 8,000m (21.33), before Aregawi, the youngest of the Ethiopians, the freshest, the best sprinter, did not launch the final acceleration with 1,000 to go, and kept it up until the bell rang. That was the end of the dance. The war began. At 300m, at the exit of the penultimate curve, as if from nowhere, Cheptegei changed the pace with such force that in two strides he left Aregawi breathless. And he continued and continued, and seeing him arrive, so happy, the fans gave thanks because in his debut in the Valencia marathon (2h 8m 59s) he had such a bad time that he lost the desire to run it in Paris, as he had planned. He ran the 10,000m and launched himself into a new era.
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