Crash, bang, wallop – down they went on day two in Daegu

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By Len Johnson

None bigger than Usain Bolt, well not unless it was Kenenisa Bekele. Bolt keeps saying his goal is to become a legend of the sport, Bekele already is that.

Incredibly, both men lost their world titles on the same day. Neither finished their race. Bolt did not even start his. Two Olympic and two world titles in consecutive years, all of them in world records.

The joke was that the only way a fit Bolt could lose was by a false start. To the amazement of all that was exactly what happened. None could recall a previous false start by Bolt – certainly not since his breakthrough year at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

When it happened, though, it was not even close. The field was on its blocks for the final. Bolt had done his usual shadow-play on being introduced, pointing either side of him and shaking his head. The charitable interpretation was that he meant to focus on his own lane, the harsher one that teammate Yohan Blake to his left and Walter Dix of the USA to his right were not in the race for the gold.

Minutes later, Blake, Kim Collins – the 2003 world champion part of whose career revival was to run this year’s Stawell Gift! – and Walter Dix were fighting out the gold medal, a stunned Bolt having retreated to the bowels of the stadium. If he entered the mixed zone at all this Sunday night, it was not from the usual direction.

No Bolt, no Powell, no Gay – a new low in the non-clashes between history’s three fastest men. Thank heavens for Berlin 2009 is all I can say. We may never see these three race each other at their top again.

So, who do you think won the gold medal, a Jamaican, that’s who. Blake overtook Collins mid-race and went on to win by over a metre in 9.92, the only sub-10 of a championships’ final that was expected to produce them by the buckets full.

But there’s trouble for Jamaica’s relay, too, with Nesta Carter never looking comfortable in the 100 final and strolling through to the line in 10.95. At least he beat bolt.

Bolt’s reign may be resumed as early as the 200 metres, but it was interrupted just as it started in Beijing. Lightning Bolt indeed – more like thunderstruck on day two in Daegu.

Whether the unthinkable happened before the incredible is a moot point, but the sight of Bekele walking into the mixed zone after 15 laps of the 10,000 was only less amazing than Bolt’s exit down the tunnel because it was a little less obvious.

Bekele had not raced since the Edinburgh cross-country in January 2010. Soon after that he ruptured a calf muscle. Until word came out of his management camp that he was running in Daegu, it was anticipated that he would not. He had won four 10,000 titles in a row (plus two Olympics), had a world championships and an Olympic double in successive years in 2008 and 2009 and, perhaps a minor consideration, perhaps not, he had an unbeaten record through 12 races at the distance with a slowest winning time of 27:08.

What did he have to gain. But here he was and for half the race looked capable of putting up a good fight. The abdication, when it came, was swift. Like a torn sail, a little break become a bigger one and then – that she blew. He walked straight off the track into the mixed zone.

It was a race that had it all, including a winner no-one rated (as a gold medallist at least).

Ibrahim Jeilan, a world junior champion at 10,000 a world junior cross-country champion (like Bekele)  chased down Mo Farah while the British runner was cranking out a 53.36 final lap.

Farah looked to be the winner after non-one proved capable of shaking his grip on the race. Zersenay Tadese tried – when does he not, throwing in a series of 64-second laps around and past the half-way point. But when he looked for someone else to sustain it, no-one could. Martin Mathati of Kenya was the only one who tried.

So as Farah moved up to fifth past half-way, to fourth with eight laps to run, to third at 8000 metres and to the lead as they came up the straight to the bell, the result looked inevitable. “It’s Farah unless someone can do something,” I noted with four laps remaining.

Maybe, when he thinks about it, Farah will reproach himself for going a little early. But he ran 53.36, for gosh’s sake. Jeilan took it off him more than Farah threw it away.

So down they went on day two in Daegu. A genuine legend in Bekele and the closest thing to one, if he isn’t already, in Bolt.

What will day three bring.