Haile Gebrselassie outsprinted Kenya's Paul Tergat on Monday to retain his 10,000 metres Olympic title by the slimmest of margins in a breathtaking conclusion to a day's eventful programme. In doing so, the diminutive Ethiopian confirmed his status as one of the greatest distance runners of all time.

A four-times World champion, Gebrselasie has not lost a 10,000 metres race since 1993.

Weakened by a foot injury, there were doubts about his physical shape after he missed the entire indoor season with a sore Achilles tendon and entered only a few races in the warm-up to the Olympics. But on Monday, September 25, the 27-year-old, who honed his skills by running 10 kilometres to school and then back every day, lived up to his awesome reputation.

"The reason why I could not run so fast was because I have an injury," he said, apologising for registering an ordinary time according to his own, high standards.

"For a time I didn't know whether I would come here. At the last moment I decided to try and now I'm very happy."

Sure, the son of a poor farmer, whose running feats include 15 world records as well as Olympic and World Championship gold, has reason to be. There's not much left for him to achieve.

The manner in which he came from behind and took up the challenge from multiple cross-country champion Kenyan Paul Tergat in the final straight to beat him by nine hundredths of a second showed the grit that champions are made of. That superlative effort, withour doubt, makes him the Olympian the day.

Haile the champion!