Lamentation of Lee Bong-Ju

The race seemed painful and wearisome for Lee Bong-Ju as he rounded the 400 m track of the Australia Stadium. His face was distorted with despair and regret. It was pitiful to see him running with a wound on his right knee and blood on the back of his hand. As he crossed the finish line, the electric billboard indicated a time of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 57 seconds, 7 minutes and 37 seconds over his record of 2 hours, 7 minutes and 20 seconds.

When Lee Bong-Ju (30-Samsung) treaded wearily towards the locker room, he seemed to have fallen into a lethargic state, completely unaware of any noise around him.

A soon as he sat down on a bench in the locker room, he covered his face with a towel in agony. It looked like the thought of not winning a gold medal in what could be his last Olympic competition tormented him. Since winning a silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Lee went through 4 years of hard training.

As some say, the winner of the laurel crown must be blessed by God, and God certainly did not help Lee in this race. Lee started off well by keeping pace with the leading group. However, after being tripped up by a runner in front of him while passing the 10 km point, Lee was already far behind when he got up to run again. Up until the 10 km point, everything was fine. Lee doesn't remember who tripped him, but after he fell, he hurt his right knee and the back of his hand, and was lagging too far behind to catch up to the leading group.

To make things worse, the harsh Sydney wind, blowing at a speed of 26-33 km per hour, prevented Lee from picking up his pace. Lee seemed to have run out of luck. He murmured ¡°I worked very hard for the gold medal . . . ¡± but was unable to finish his words.