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In men's long-distance running, African athletes are the dominant force.

Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie holds the world marathon record and he was virtually untouchable through the 1990s in the 10,000m.

In fact, if you include Morocco's Khalid Khannouchi - who set his fastest marathon time after becoming an American citizen - African athletes have recorded the best 10 times over the 26-and-a-bit-mile event.

And the man who laid the foundation for this success? .

Ethiopian Bikila only went to the 1960 Rome Olympics as a late replacement for , who had broken his ankle.

But he emerged as the first African Olympic champion when he won the marathon in a new Olympic record time of 2 hours 15 minutes 16 seconds, eight minutes quicker than Emil Zatopek's mark.

Bikila's achievement was even more sensational when you consider he ran barefoot through the streets of the Italian capital because he could not find any shoes to fit.

Four years later, he became the only athlete to win back-to-back marathon titles when, this time wearing shoes, he knocked three minutes off his Olympic record to destroy the field assembled in Tokyo.

Britain's finished second, over four minutes adrift.

According to Bikila's great friend and rival , he would have won a third gold in Mexico but a knee injury forced him to withdraw early in the race.

, at the age of 41, when he died as the result of complications related to a car accident four years previously, that had left him paraplegic.

Such was his popularity that a national day of mourning was called, 65,000 people attended his funeral and an athletics stadium in Ethiopian capital Addis Adaba was named in his honour.

Is he the greatest African distance runner in history?