ATHLETICS/London Grand Prix: How fitting that Haile Gebrselassie should provide the exhilarating climax to the London Grand Prix in Crystal Palace last night, one of the final stop-offs before the athletics world shifts to Athens in two weeks' time.
The great Ethiopian pulled victory from the jaws of defeat, with the young Australian Craig Mottram running the race of his life to so nearly upset the two-time Olympic champion.
Mottram became only the third non-African to break 13 minutes, his 12 minutes 55.76 also just half a stride away from Gebrselassie's winning time of 12:55.51.
It was a race that also brought out the best in Alistair Cragg, who again underlined his position as the future of Irish distance running. Cragg was on sub-13 pace with four laps to go but he still ran a hugely encouraging race ahead of the Olympics - knocking over four seconds off his best when finishing fifth in 13:12.76. Mark Carroll is the only Irishman to have run faster.
The race, though, belonged to Mottram and Gebrselassie. The 24-year-old Australian burst into the lead at the bell and led until the home stretch. At 31, however, Gebrselassie is far from finished; he edged Mottram on the line.
The Australian came into the season with a best of 13:12.04. America's Bob Kennedy and Germany's Dieter Baumann were the only non-Africans on the sub-13 list. Mottram now takes the Australian record into that territory.
It now seems a matter of time before Cragg threatens that barrier too. He looked the part throughout the race and only a lack of experience at the level came against him. His improvement on his 13:16.98 set last month will do his confidence no harm heading to Athens and he is now clearly a potential finalist.
The other Irishman in the race, Cathal Lombard, dropped out.
Earlier in the night the 22-year-old Russian Yelena Isinbayeva treated the sell-out crowd to an exhibition of pole vaulting, improving her own world record to 4.90 metres and earning a £50,000 bonus in the process. Last week in Birmingham she'd cleared 4.89, the previous record.
Meanwhile, the Olympic 100-metre final suddenly looks like a whole new race. Asafa Powell of Jamaica is now the man to beat, winning last night in 9.91 seconds and beating Olympic champion Maurice Greene.
At 21 Powell may be the star of the future, but that's no reason why he can't win in Athens.
Paul Hession got a starting spot in the 200 metres and ran well to take fifth in 20.81 - though short of his recent best of 20.61. Victory there went to Britain's Chris Lambert in 20.50, but Hession is clearly proving he can now compete at world level.
The women's 5,000 metres was comfortably won by Kenya's Edith Masai in 14:58.96, with Ireland's Marie Davenport coming home 12th in 15:58.49.
