GERMANY: ATHLETICS - Haile Gebrselassie focuses on endurance in bid to crack World Record at upcoming Berlin Marathon

Haile Gebrselassie, who was on world record pace in last year's Berlin Marathon before fading at the finish, said he will try again to break the record on Sunday. Ethiopian distance champion Haile Gebrselassie won the 2006 Berlin Marathon in a personal best time of two hours, five minutes 56 seconds last year-- which was 61 seconds slower than his great track rival Paul Tergat's world record set over the same course in 2003. "It's a fast course. I will try. I can not say anything right now. Let's see on Sunday," Gebrselassie told a news conference in Berlin on Friday (September 28) when asked if he felt fit enough to break Tergat's three-year-old mark. Gebrselassie was 26 seconds inside the world record time at the halfway stage and still on course to beat Tergat until he was slowed over the last few kilometres by powerful headwinds. "I just have full confidence in doing something here in Berlin. I've been running for many years here in Berlin. I never lost since 1991 here in Berlin," added the 34-year-old who was the supreme distance runner of his era on the track and won four successive world titles over 10,000 metres. Gebrselassie, who also set numerous world records before turning to road racing, said he had dreamt about breaking the marathon record in Berlin. On a visit to the German capital in August he wrote his goal -- 2.03 -- on a drawing board.

ITN Source | September 29, 2007

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