TEMPE, Ariz. -- Haile Gebrselassie shattered the world half marathon
record by 21 seconds Sunday while running the last half of the Rock 'N'
Roll Arizona marathon. He also broke the 20-kilometer world mark en
route. It marked the 19th and 20th times the diminutive Ethiopian has
broken world records in his career. His half marathon time of 58
minutes, 55 seconds on a clear, crisp morning through the streets of
Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe broke the mark of 59:16 set by
18-year-old Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, last
Sept. 11. His 20-kilometer time, also officially clocked, was 55:48.
That broke the world record held by his longtime rival, Paul Tergat of
Kenya, of 56:18 set in the Stramilano, Italy, half marathon on April 4,
1998.
While nearly 34,000 took part in the marathon and related running
events on Sunday, only Gebrselassie and four pacesetters took off from
the midpoint of the marathon course. Initially, he was slower than
Wanjiru's world-record pace, but that changed when the 32-year-old
four-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist took off on
his own some 10 kilometers into his race.
That was by design, he said.
"That was our plan. We didn't expect the first part of the race to be
fast," Gebrselassie said. "Our plan was for the second part. My plan
was to run under 59 minutes and that is what we did."
With rock bands playing each mile along the way, Gebrselassie showed no
signs of laboring, looking as if he was on a simple morning run. He
averaged less than 4½ minutes per mile over the 13.1 miles.
Gebrselassie won the Olympic gold medal at 10,000 meters in 1996 and
2000 but has not run on the track since his fifth-place finish at the
2004 Athens Games. Instead, he switched to the roads, where he hopes to
add a gold medal in the marathon at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Last October, he aimed for Tergat's world marathon record of 2 hours, 4
minutes, 55 seconds at the Rotterdam Marathon but came up short at
2:06.20.
He has been training at 9,800 feet near his home in Ethiopia.
Sunday's time sends a message to Gebrselassie's foes that he is in top
shape for the April 23 London Marathon, where Tergat will be among the
competitors.
"You can see from today's record," he said when asked about his
condition for London. "I hope I will do very good in the London
Marathon."
There will be no "rabbits" setting the pace in that one, so
Gebrselassie downplayed the opportunity for a world record there.
"London is going to be something different because everybody wants to
run to win," he said. "I'm OK if I win. If I do not break the world
record but win in London, it is something special. But we'll see.
Anything is possible."
Cheering fans waved Ethiopian flags as he neared the finish line on the
Arizona State University campus. When he crossed the finish line, a few
fans and friends surrounded him, chanting "Haile! Ethiopia!" He blew
kisses to the crowd.
"Everywhere in the world, there are Ethiopians," he said.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
