World record holder Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia secured what he hopes will be the first leg of the long-distance double Sunday.

Kenenisa Bekele celebrates after he wins the men's 10,000m gold. [China Daily]

The Ethiopian retained his Olympic 10,000m title with a devastating last lap, and is contemplating whether to run the 5,000m next Saturday.

After tracking the leaders for most of the race, Bekele let rip over the last 400m to finish in an Olympic record of 27min 1.17sec, well clear of teammate Sileshi Sihine (27:02.77), who also got silver behind him in Athens.

Micah Kogo (27:04.11) snatched bronze for Kenya.

With either Kenyans or Ethiopians dictating a brisk pace, the lead pack slowly shed runners throughout the race. Only seven, including all three Kenyans and Ethiopians, started the final two laps together.

The rapid closing speed was too much for Bekele's former mentor, Haile Gebrselassie.

The long-distance great's bid for an emotional third gold after his triumphs in 1996 and 2000 fell short when he faded towards the end to finish sixth (27:06.68).

East African runners took the top seven places in the race and only Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese, who finished fifth, managed to disrupt the Ethiopian-Kenyan duel

There was a major shock in the men's 1500m semifinals, with reigning world champion Bernard Lagat failing to make it through to the final.

Lagat could only manage to finish sixth in the second semifinal, behind Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi with New Zealand's Nicholas Willis getting the important automatic fifth qualifying spot.

The former Kenyan, who won the 1500m in the 2004 Athens Games, clocked a disappointing time of 3:37.79.

The 33-year-old won the 1500m and 5000m double at last year's world championships in Osaka and was hoping to do it again in Beijing.

Kenya's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop won the first semi-final impressively in 3:37.04.

Agencies