ATHENS, Aug 21: Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele succeeded his mentor Haile Gebrselassie as the Olympic 10,000 metres champion on Friday after an astonishing final lap in the longest track event.

Bekele, who also defeated Gebrselassie at the Paris world championships last year, clocked 53 seconds on the closing circuit as he shot away from the rest of the field.

His team mate Sileshi Sihine, who ran in tandem with Bekele for much of the race, finished second while Gebrselassie, generally acclaimed as the greatest distance runner in history, faded to fifth.

"We were hoping to take the first three places but Haile wasn't able to keep up," said Bekele, who won in 27 minutes 5.10 seconds. "I was very well prepared and was always confident that I would win."

Bekele, who is attempting a 5,000-10,000 double in Athens, is already the track athlete of the year by some distance.

He completed the world cross country double this year for the third time and broke Gebrselassie's world indoor 5,000 record during the European winter. Outdoors he broke Gebrselassie's world 5,000 and 10,000 marks.

The first of the day's two gold medals went to Ivano Brugnetti who won Italy's first race walk title since Maurizio Damilano at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Brugnetti clocked a personal best of one hour 19 minutes 40 seconds in scorching heat in the morning session.

"I dedicate this victory to the mother of my girlfriend who is fighting a serious illness," said Brugnetti.

Sweden's world champion Carolina Kluft finished the first day of the seven-discipline heptathlon with a commanding 240-point lead.

Kluft compiled 4,109 points from the first four events, although she confessed she had underestimated the Athens heat.

"By the end of the day my batteries were flat and I need a good sleep," she said.

France's former European champion Christine Aaron looked highly impressive in the first two rounds of the women's 100 metres, as did American Lauryn Williams.

American champion LaTasha Colander also qualified for Saturday's semi-finals but twice Olympic champion Gail Devers had to wait until the second-round heats had finished before scraping through as one of the fastest losers.-Agencies