Kipchoge out to ruin El Guerrouj party

Saving the best until last, Kenenisa Bekele, the most amazing distance runner the world has yet seen, and Hicham El Guerrouj, the finest miler of all time, have set up a delicious climax to the Olympic track programme here on Saturday night.

Ethiopian Bekele, the 10,000 metres champion, and Morocco's El Guerrouj, the 1,500m winner, will do battle over the 'neutral' distance of 5,000m as they seek to complete historic golden doubles. But a remarkable Kenyan teenager - Eliud Kipchoge - could gatecrash their party just as he did at the world championships in Paris last year.

On that occasion too, the two African masters had been in sight of making history when they met in the 5,000m final. El Guerrouj was in line to become the first man to achieve the 1,500m-5,000m double at a global championships since Paavo Nurmi did it at the 'Chariots of Fire' Games in 1924. Meanwhile, Bekele looked set to be the first since his compatriot Miruts Yifter in Moscow 1980 to complete 10,000m and 5,000m triumphs in the same week.

Yet Kipchoge, then an 18-year-old unknown, beat them both in the fastest championship 5,000m ever witnessed, just dipping ahead of El Guerrouj with Bekele finishing third.

Last night, a mouthwatering reprise was set up after the trio all qualified from their semis with absurd comfort though El Guerrouj, who reckoned he'd had no sleep through excitement after delivering one of the most fantastic triumphs the Games have ever seen in the 1,500m 24 hours earlier, was left complaining about blisters from his shoes being too small.

"I've new shoes coming in for the final so I should be all right," said El Guerrouj. He will need them because Bekele, the new world record holder at the 5,000m, appears to be moving in a world of his own, now having won all 12 of his races this year, including setting three world records, winning an Olympic gold and four world championship golds.