By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
 SYDNEY, Australia - Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, one of the greatest long-distance racers of all time, won one of the greatest long-distance races in Olympic history.

 It was the 10,000 metres. But it looked like the 100 metres as Gebrselassie and Kenya's Paul Tergat ran to the finish with Gebrselassie out-leaning him to the wire at the finish.

 Gebrselassie became the fourth person to ever win a pair of Olympic golds in the 10,000 metres, joining some of the great names in the sport - Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek and Lasse Viren in doing so.

 In the end, he almost apologized.

 "The reason why I could not run so fast was because I have an injury at the moment and I did not know if I should compete here at Sydney. At the last moment I decided to try. Now I am very happy,'' said Gebrselassie, a man who was inspired by an Ethopian runner at the Los Angeles Olympics and ran 10,000 metres to school every day carrying his books, resulting in the rather unusual style he has run with all of his career.

 Tergat has finally given up trying to beat the guy.

 He says he'd like to come to Edmonton 2001, but not running the 10,000 metres against Gebrselassie.

 "I believe that now this is my last race on the track. Now I will try marathons,'' he said.

 It was a very busy day at the track prior to a day off as the stadium is reserved for a closing ceremonies rehearsal.

 At his fourth Olympic Games, Great Britain's Jonathan Edwards hit for the cycle by winning gold and completing his set of titles - Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European - and confirmed his place as the greatest triple jumper ever.

 The world record holder jumped a season best of 17.71 to beat Yoel Garcia of Cuba and Denis Kapustin who settled for silver and bronze respectively.

 "I feel grateful for everything,'' said Edwards. "I don't know what to say. I'm overwhelmed. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel fluid. I was praying like mad. I was hanging on a little bit and I came through by the skin of my teeth.''

 Romania's Gabriela Szabo won the gold in the women's 5,000 metres, setting a new Olympic Games record of 14:40.70 but barely beating Sonia Sullivan of Ireland.

 "I feel fantastic,'' she said. "Congratulations to everybody in the race. It's a special night for me.''

 Gete Wami of Ethiopia earned bronze.

 Cuba's Anier Garcia won the gold medal in the men's 110-metre hurdles, beating three Americans and the world record holder.

 The Cuban won with a time of 13.00 with Atlanta gold medal winner Allen Johnson clipping hurdles and fading to fourth leaving fellow Americans Terrence Trammell and Mark Crear with silver and bronze. The world record holder, Colin Jackson, finished fifth.

 Garcia gave credit to the 112,524 fans in the stadium who came to cheer Cathy Freeman but stayed to help him.

 "The stadium is really good and the people are fantastic,'' he said.

 Jason Tunks made himself a story in Canada by finishing sixth in the discus but it was Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania winning the gold, Germany's Lars Riedcel taking the silver and South Africa's Frantz Kruger accepting the bronze.

 Women's pole vault made its Olympic debut with Stacy Dragila from the U.S. winning the first gold, winning a head-to-head battle with Australia's Tatiana Grigorieva. Iceland's Vala Flosadoottir won the bronze on a countback.

 And if a medal for Iceland was unusual, how about Maria Mutola who won Mozambique's first ever Olympic gold medal in the 800 metres.

 "It is a very, very special moment. In my country today is a national holiday and to be the first person to win gold on a national holiday is very special,'' she said. "I'm sure there will be a lot of celebrations.''

 After a battle over the last 100 metres, Mutola won in 1:56.15 with Stephanie Graf of Austria settling for silver and Kelly Holmes of Great Britain taking the bronze.