By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Less than ten minutes after breaking the world marathon record on Sunday, Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie was handed a cell phone — it was Paul Tergat calling from Kenya to offer his congratulations.

“I’m sorry,” Gebrselassie told his great rival and long-time friend after winning the Berlin marathon in two hours four minutes 26 seconds, shattering by 29 seconds Tergat’s record set on the same course in 2003.

Tergat, who was pipped for the gold medal in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics by Gebrselassie in two classic 10,000 metres battles, would have none of it, telling Gebrselassie he was delighted for him.

“I am sorry — this record belonged to Paul Tergat,” Gebrselassie told a news conference when asked about the phone call. “Paul is my friend.”

Gebrselassie tried to tell Tergat he thought he had better weather conditions this year compared to 2003, when it was sunnier and warmer, although there was less wind. But Tergat responded that records were meant to be broken.

“I really wanted to do this record but I was a little bit worried about it, worried about attacking my friend’s record,” said Gebrselassie, 34, who fell 61 seconds short a year ago in Berlin in his first attempt to break Tergat’s mark of 2:04.55.

“I think Paul understands that. I talked to him and said ‘Hi, Paul, I’m sorry.’ I said ‘You can come here and try to get it back again next year’.”

Gebrselassie, the best distance runner of his era, is one of only three men to win consecutive Olympic 10,000 metres titles, the second at the 2000 Sydney Games providing an indelible image when he just held off the frenzied challenge from Tergat.

Gebrselassie has now held records at distances ranging from 3,000m to the marathon. He set numerous world records and won four successive world titles over 10,000m before turning to road racing.

“Sure, there’s no question about that,” Gebrselassie said when asked if the elusive marathon world record was the most important. “It’s something special. I was dreaming of it for many years. It’s my record now. I’m so happy.”

On Sunday he confidently attacked the flat, fast course under ideal marathon weather conditions and had split times that were consistently a half minute faster than Tergat for almost the entire race.

Gebrselassie admitted he had been a bit rattled by heavy rain and strong winds in Berlin earlier in the week.

“I lost some confidence when I first arrived — you know, the weather,” he said. “Yesterday, I thought ‘what’s going on here in Berlin?’ But they kept telling me the weather forecast was ‘no rain’. How do you believe that?”

The weather forecast turned out to be accurate. The rain stopped before the race, temperatures at the start were around 13 degrees Celsius, there was only a little wind and skies remained overcast until late in the race.