Double Olympic Champion Haile Gebrselassie broke the world marathon record with an official time of 2hr 4min 26sec to win the 34th Berlin maratho on sunday. The 34-year-old Ethiopian, who won 10,00m gold at Altlanta in 1996 and at sydney four years later, bettered Kenyan Paul Tergat’s record of 2hr 4min and 55sec set in 2003 also in the German capital.
Don’t ask me how proud i am, words can’t describe" said the breathless new world record holder who picks up the 50,000 dollars cheque in addition to 250, 000 dollars fee for competing. " It’s something really special" i had said i wanted to do 2hrs 3min, but that didnot happen.
This was Gebreselassis’s second consecutive win in Berlin since he quite track racing after the 2004 olympics to concentrate on the marathon. But there was no talk of retirement for the Ethiopian with the world Althletic Champions set to take place at Berlin’s olypmpic stadium in 2006 and next year’s olympic Games in Beijing.
This isn’t the end , i want to come here in 2009 and run the world championships and there is Beijing next year , so it’s not over yet, no way" he added.