Contrast in styles: Gebrselassie beats Mottram

The Story

Austtralia's long-striding Craig Mottram is the only non-African who is not scared of the distance kings on road or track. This rare side-on footage is a great chance to study the contrasting styles of two of the greatest runners around. Mottram, six-foot-two, comes in the final lap of the 5,000m at the London GP in 2004 on equal footing with Ethiopian multi-world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie, but is already starting to lose form. Watch Gebrselassie kick hard but effortlessly to leave the Aussie floundering, simply by spinning his legs faster. Gebrselassie is barely five-foot-five. For style purists, the Ethiopian is a magnificent example of how to do everything right, yet he famously runs with a sllightly crooked left arm -- the result, he says, of his daily 10k runs to and from school as a child carrying a pile of books! Source: Motion Gallery.