ByJörg Wenig for the IAAF

Berlin, Germany – When Haile Gebrselassie travelled to Berlin recently for a press conference staged by one of his sponsors, he said: “I am here for my next goal.” This Sunday the 34 year-old Ethiopian will run the real,- Berlin Marathon as the defending champion. But apart from winning his goal is obvious: Gebrselassie intends to break the World record, held by his big rival and friend Paul Tergat. The Kenyan ran 2:04:55 hours four years ago in Berlin.

“I have chosen Berlin, because this is the best course and there are incredible spectators – Berlin is great,” said Gebrselassie, who is a two-time Olympic and four-time World 10,000m champion and who has broken 23 World records and World bests so far. Last year he had won the Berlin Marathon in what remained the fastest time of the year. Clocking 2:05:56 he missed Tergat’s time by just 61 seconds.

“I had problems on the final three kilometers last year. That was because I had worked hard keeping the pace very high between 30 and 35 k, which was a mistake.” Still Gebrselassie clocked the seventh fastest time ever and became the fifth fastest Marathon runner in Berlin 2006.

Fast follow-up in Fukuoka

Little more than two months later he achieved another novelty of which there are so many in his unique career. He took the Fukuoka Marathon in 2:06:52. Never before had a marathon runner clocked two sub 2:07 times within such a short period of time. In 2005 Gebrselassie had been the fastest marathon runner of the year as well with his 2:06:20 win from Amsterdam. If he should be again number one at the end of this year this would be a rare triple as well. So far this year the world’s fastest time stands at 2:07:19 from Mubarak Shami (Qatar), who had won Paris.

This spring Gebrselassie had a true nightmare marathon experience, when he dropped out of the start-studded field in the London Marathon. “Suddenly I could not breathe properly and had to give up. That was very sad. I could not sleep at all the night after that – and this experience still follows me until today,” he said. Later on a pollen allergy was diagnosed. “I had a number of allergy tests in the past months. But the good thing about Berlin is – there will be no pollen at this time of the year here.”

Impressive outings on the track

Already in the early track season Gebrselassie bounced back from the London flop. In Hengelo he clocked a world class time in the 10,000m with 26:52.81. “At the age of 34 no one has ever run under 27 minutes,” Gebrselassie is quick to point out. A few weeks later in Ostrava he went on to improve the World record in the one hour race (21,285 meters) and on the way broke the 20,000m mark as well (56:25.98 minutes). Those two track races he ran without spikes to protect his Achilles tendon, which makes his achievements even more remarkable.

Central Park cruise

At the beginning of August Gebrselassie ran his final test before Berlin, winning the New York Half Marathon in a world class time of 59:24 minutes. “Taking into account the tough course it was a great time. The first 11 kilometers are hilly in Central Park – honestly, if it would have been a flat course, I would have run 58 minutes flat.” The half marathon world record stands at 58:33. “Fortunately Berlin is not Central Park.”

‘You always have to aim high’

“I feel that I can achieve something outstanding in Berlin,” said Gebrselassie, who increased his weekly mileage in the surroundings of Addis Ababa during the buildup to Berlin to 250km (156 miles). “To become stronger in the last part of the marathon I increased my speed in the final part of my training runs.”

During much of the press conference Haile Gebrselassie remained cautious regarding a time goal. But at the end he was asked to start a marketing campaign for adidas, in which runners are asked to show their motivation for running by a drawing. Haile Gebrselassie did a line drawing, showing himself and then wrote underneath it: ‘2:03:00 – I will show you.’ Then he explained: “Well, 2:04 would be okay as well. You always have to aim high.”