Kenenisa Bekele, who completed a 5,000m and 10,000m double in Beijing, produced a storming final lap of his 3,000m race to win in a world-leading time and stadium record at the Aviva British Grand Prix in Gateshead on Sunday.

While almost everyone else in Gateshead suffered the inevitable post-Olympic hangover, Bekele set this year’s best time for the 3,000 metres – 7min 31.95sec. This came on the back of doing the same for the 5,000 metres in Zurich on Friday. He has spent the past week celebrating, sitting on planes for 18 hours and setting unfathomable times.

It could have been termed a tale of two champions as the smog of Beijing gave way to the rain of Gateshead. There was Christine Ohuruogu, a woman whose name will forever come with a comma, and Kenenisa Bekele, a foot smaller than Usain Bolt but still able to rub shoulders with him. Both may have felt that they had reasons to be aggrieved as they turned up for the Aviva British Grand Prix.

Ohuruogu has made tentative noises about being the poster girl for 2012, but others continue to manacle her to her past. Just as she knew it would, winning gold in Beijing exhumed all the old arguments and cynicism. The pros and cons have been well aired, but it is worth remembering that, as Dave Collins departs, the outgoing UK Athletics performance director said two years ago that 70 British athletes were on missed tests. In addition, Pierre Weiss, the IAAF general secretary, admitted last September that as many as 1,000 people had missed tests within the previous year. The statistics do not excuse Ohuruogu, but they do lend her some context.

The result, however, is that Ohuruogu has not received the ticker-tape parade or open-top bus trip that others have. She ran the fastest time in the world this year to win the Olympic 400 metres, but is still a partial heroine in some eyes. Yesterday, the fans stuck around in torrential rain to watch her homecoming. In typical Ohuruogu style, she won at a canter, the modest time of 51.27sec underlining her remarks that she trains for championships and not one-off meetings. Mary Wineberg, of the United States, was second, with Nicola Sanders third. Only Kelly Sotherton, the moonlighting heptathlete, had reason to be cheered by her time, 52.19sec representing a personal best.

“It’s not about silencing people, it’s about doing the best I could,” Ohuruogu said. “I’m so thankful to the British public for their support and I wanted to come out to say thank you.”
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If all of Britain steadfastly refuses to acknowledge Ohuruogu’s feats, Ethiopia takes the opposite view on Bekele. They call him “the Lion” at home, but he does not dance, wear golden boots or have chicken nuggets for his pre-race meal. So the Olympics belonged to Usain Bolt, even though Bekele had every right to put in a counterclaim after winning the 5,000 and 10,000 metres double.

It was a feat that put him in an elite band, including Miruts Yifter, his compatriot, but Bekele, albeit a legend in the making in athletics, is far from the household name that Bolt has become in the space of a fortnight. He says that being overshadowed by the Jamaican sprinter does not bother him, but that is a lingering injustice because his story is every bit as colourful.

While Jamaica awaits Bolt’s return and a never-ending knees-up, Bekele has already been back to Addis Ababa, where a million people turned out to welcome him, including the prime minister and president. That was a far cry from the time Yifter went home after missing the 5,000 metres final at the 1972 Olympics because he was late coming out of the toilet; “The Shifter” was thrown in jail.

Elsewhere yesterday, Lisa Dobriskey won the 1,500 metres and admitted that finishing fourth in Beijing provided motivation. “I visualised that lap of honour at the Olympics so many times, it’s really hard to deal with it,” she said. “I was emotionally, physically drained, but my dad said, ‘Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.’ I can use it to fuel my future performances.”

Those Britons who did leave China with medals had mixed days. Tasha Danvers ran almost two seconds slower than in taking bronze in the 400metres hurdles, leaving Melanie Walker, Jamaica’s Olympic champion, to add another notch to her belt, while an out-of-sorts Phillips Idowu managed only fourth and 16.42 metres in the triple jump. “I’ve been ill all week with a cold and sore throat,” he said.

Germaine Mason did manage a win, however, his leap of 2.27 metres enough to beat allcomers in the high jump, then he credited Stephen Francis’s strict coaching regime in Jamaica for his success. Another Francis charge, Asafa Powell, also found some late-season form. After Tyson Gay romped through the 200 metres to provide himself with some post-Bolt therapy, Powell won the 100metres in 9.87sec, a time that lent credence to the view that he is brilliant when not at a leading championship. The Jamaican was only fifth in the final in Beijing, but is running well enough to dip below 9.8 before the season is out.

Goldie Sayers, Marilyn Okoro and Martyn Rooney were other home winners, while Vivian Cheruiyot, of Kenya, set the year’s best time in the 3,000 metres. As for Ohuruogu, it may have rained on her parade, but at least she had one.

Source: Timesonline