Gebreselassie targets record in Berlin

ETHIOPIAN distance legend Haile Gebreselassie has his eyes focused on Kenyan rival Paul Tergat’s world marathon record in Berlin tomorrow.

And who better to push the 33-year-old than Kenya’s Sammy Korir, the man who paced Tergat to his world-record run of 2hrs 04mins 55secs in Berlin three years ago? As pacemaker in 2003, Korir finished second, posting the second fastest time ever of 2:04:56.

This time Korir will be one of Gebreselassie’s leading rivals.

Double Olympic champion over 10,000 metres, Gebreselassie believes that forecasts of sunshine in the German capital can help his cause after finishing a disappointing ninth in the rain in London six months ago.

“I don’t want to speak about records yet but I also know that the Berlin course is relatively flat and has the reputation for being fast,” said the Ethiopian, who has set 21 world records in his career.

“I was in form in London but when I saw the rain I knew it just wasn’t going to be my day. The rain made the road slippery and I had problems because of my style or running.”

It will be the fourth marathon for Gebreselassie, who finished third in London in 2002 with a time of 2.06.35 and won in Amsterdam last year in 2.06.20.

But the record is within his reach. “I don’t think there is a limit. For athletes of my generation I think it will be possible to run a marathon in 2hrs 03mins,” he said. “I hope that in the future the record will go under the two hour mark but I don’t know how long that will take — 20 years, 50 years, who knows? It was 45 years ago that (Ethiopia’s) Abebe Bikila broke the 2hrs 15mins barrier.”