Athens - For two years, Kelly Holmes lived and trained with Maria Mutola, hoping to pick up some of the qualities that made the Mozambican star one of the greatest 800m runners in history.
On Monday, Holmes finally overtook her mentor.
The 34-year-old former British army sergeant passed Mutola in the final straight and pulled away to win the Olympic gold medal in the 800m for her first major title.
It was the first time Holmes has beaten Mutola in a major race and ended a decade of injury setbacks and dashed hopes. Mutola, the defending Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion, faded to fourth place.
"I've been through so many ups and downs," Holmes said. "It's always gone away from me at major championships. I was expecting something to go totally wrong tonight. I'm quite shocked."
Holmes decided only last week to enter the 800. Now she'll run in her preferred event, the 1 500m, in a bid for a rare middle-distance double. The first-round heats are on Tuesday.
"Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight (Monday) and be awake enough to run tomorrow evening (Tuesday)," she said.
Mutola, 31, held the lead coming into the last 100m. But Holmes, who has so often failed to get past Mutola at the finish, pulled even with her and the two ran shoulder to shoulder toward the line.
Photo finish
In a thrilling finish, Holmes moved in front in the last 20m. Morocco's Hasna Benhassi and Jolanda Ceplak slipped past Mutola in the final strides. Holmes crossed the line in 1 minute, 56.38 seconds. Benhassi and Ceplak both clocked 1:56.43, but the photo finish gave the silver to the Moroccan.
"My heart just took me to the line, to be honest," Holmes said. "The line didn't come fast enough. I just hung on for dear life."
Mutola, who clocked 1:56.51, looked stunned and left the track without congratulating Holmes.
"Kelly knows my weaknesses," she said. "Kelly deserved her gold medal."
American runner Jearl Miles-Clark, 37, competing in her fifth Olympics, led for much of the race, but was bumped by Mutola with about 80m to go and faded to sixth in a season's best 1:57.27. She said it may have been her last Olympic race.
"I wanted to go out with a bang," she said. "I didn't get the medal but I'm not going to cry about it because I went out and I left everything on the track."
Miles-Clark still hopes to run in the 4x400m relay.
Mutola had been attempting to become the first woman to win consecutive 800m titles. She missed more than two weeks of training because of a hamstring injury, and had a 36-race winning streak snapped earlier this summer by Russia's Svetlana Cherkasova. She wasn't her usual dominant self in the semi-finals.
Holmes and Mutola, who spent most of their time in Africa, stopped training together five months ago. Holmes said she wanted to concentrate on the 1 500 and stay in Europe close to her British team-mates. The two still have the same American coach, Margo Jennings.
