Movement of the Week: Gebr v. Tergat

I've never been a big fan of running. My favorite games are ball sports like tennis, squash and soccer. So I will run, but only when I’m chasing after a ball. Otherwise, what’s the point? I honestly cannot understand how people slog away mile after mile on their feet or on a bike or in a pool doing the same thing over and over again. And they seem to like it! Whenever I hear that someone is a great runner, I always think - wow that would be useful on the soccer field.

I don’t mean to offend any runners out there, I’m just describing my own tastes. I wish I could love running, that would be very convenient. I wouldn’t need to wait for the next soccer game to get some cardio.

So I think it's a little curious that one of my favorite sporting moments of all time is a race. The video below is the last two minutes of the Olympic men’s 10,000 meters in Sydney 2000, featuring Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia and Paul Tergat from Kenya. This literally sends shivers down my spine. Listen closely to the excellent call by the announcer:

last 2 laps of the mens 10,000 haile gebrselassie brilliant

Wow. It doesn’t get more primal than that. 200 hundred yards to go, no gas in the tank, mano a mano. It strips sport down to its bare essence. I can watch this five times in a row and get an adrenaline rush each time.

And I like this race so much I have to show it twice. Here’s the same thing set to music and in slow motion. What gorgeous movement. And the facial close ups tell the story.

Uno de las mas emocionantes finales en un 10000 de la historia olímpica la protagonizada por estos dos "monstruos" del atletismo. En las imagenes ralentizadas se puede observar claramente el desenlazace de una competencia de años entre estos dos grandísimos atletas.