The duo was speaking in Nairobi, Kenya during the recent training programme for talented African athletes organised by the multinational G4S security company. Before they talked about their interesting duels on the field, a video of their 10,000m race in the 2000 Sydney Olympics was played on a big screen. Gebrselassie's narrow victory over Tergat came down to a blistering finish. The winning margin was only 0.09 seconds, closer than the winning margin in the men's 100 metres final. This is widely considered the greatest finish to any distance race in history. Both Gebrselassie and Tergat smiled at the end of the video show and agreed that it was one of the races that kept spectators on the edge of their seats. Gebrselassie revealed that he was not sure whether he had finished first until he saw his face being shown on the screen at the stadium.
Tergat had said earlier in a group interview that he was impressed by the general performances of African athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "We had problems in the 100m and 200m but after that, African athletes started dominating," he said. He explained that for Africa to improve, the athletes and the coaches need to be exposed to different training methods in the world.
