2003 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 10,000 metres

None The men's 10,000 metres event featured at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris, France. The final was held on 24 August 2003. At this point in time, Haile Gebrselassie was the #1 distance runner in the world, with two successive Olympic titles and four World Championships at 10,000. He also held the 5-year-old world record plus the world record at 5,000 metres. A poor race at the previous World Championships was the first sign of his lack of total dominance, now the 30 year old had a challenger from near his home town, who also ran with an almost identical, efficient running form, 21 year old Kenenisa Bekele. As Gebrselassie ran a strong race trying to burn off his new rival, the rest of the world's best runners, including five Kenyan born athletes, disappeared in their wake. The last to hold on to the lead group was Sileshi Sihine, assuring an Ethiopian sweep, but the championship was in doubt. Bekele remained as Gebrselassie's twin shadow until he made one move with 200 metres to go. Gebrselassie's ever powerful sprint was no match for Bekele. Over the final straightaway, Bekele extended to more than a full second gap for the victory and the changing of the guard in dominance of long-distance track running. Bekele took the prize at the next Olympics over Sihine with Gebrselassie out of the money and accomplished the Woolworth double (5 and 10) in 2008. Gebrselassie subsequently focused his effort onto 10k, half-marathon and marathon competitions, setting multiple world records before retiring. Final ranking This was the first time anyone ran under 27 minutes at these championships. RANKATHLETE TIMEImage:Med 1.pngKenenisa Bekele ETH 199626:49.57CRImage:Med 2.pngHaile Gebrselassie ETH 199626:50.77Image:Med 3.pngSileshi Sihine ETH 199627:01.444.Ahmad Hassan Abdullah QAT27:18.285.John Cheruiyot Korir KEN27:19.946.Wilberforce Talel KEN27:33.607.Charles Kamathi KEN27:45.058.Kamiel Maase NED27:45.469.Karl Keska GBR27:47.8910.Ismaïl Sghyr FRA27:54.8711.David Galván MEX27:55.3112.John Yuda Msuri TAN27:56.2113.Fabiano Joseph Naasi TAN28:06.3614.Alan Culpepper USA28:14.9215.Teodoro Vega MEX28:31.7116.Mebrahtom Keflezighi USA28:35.0817.Cathal Lombard IRL28:36.4318.Tomoo Tsubota JPN28:37.1019.Dan Browne USA29:01.60—Salim Kipsang KENDNF—Michael Aish NZLDNF—Dieter Baumann GERDNF—José Manuel Martínez ESPDNS See also Athletics at the 2003 Pan American Games - Men's 10000 metres References Category:Men's events at the 2003 World Athletics Championships Category:10,000 metres at the World Athletics Championships