New World Marathon Record For Haile Gebrselassie
The world marathon record was smashed by Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin on Sunday, with the 34-year-old Ethiopian taking advantage of near perfect conditions to lower Paul Tergat’s previous record of 2:04:55 to 2:04:26.
At the halfway mark, Gebrselassie trailed the record by six seconds, but picked up the pace over the last six miles, when he ran alone without pacemakers.
Berlin is well known as one of the fastest marathon venues in the world and this was the sixth time a marathon world record has been set there. The previous record, set by Tergat in 2003, was also recorded in Berlin, where the combination of a flat elevation profile and near perfect weather conditions almost guarantee fast times.
Now Gebrselassie has his sights on an even quicker time in the future - “I promised I’d run 2.03, that didn’t happen,” he said. “Maybe next time.”
For the record, Gebrselassie picked up $71,000 for the win and the same amount in a world record bonus. Not bad for just over 2 hours work!
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October 2nd, 2007 at 6:44 am
Not bad for 2 hours of work - that is if you don’t count all the hours he put into training
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:56 am
Haha - good point!!
And for the record I wouldn’t have even reached the 20 mile mark as Haile was crossing the finish line - over 6 miles behind!