Sydney, Australia – Ethiopian running maestro Haile Gebrselassie could capture his 27th world record at the inaugural HBA Great Australian Run in Melbourne, organizers said Saturday.
Sunday’s 15-kilometre race around the streets of Australia’s second-biggest city is his first outing since breaking two hours and four minutes in the 42.2-kilometre marathon. He improved his own world record with a time of 2:03:59 in Berlin in September.
The 10,000-metre gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is convinced more world marks are his.
“My plan is to at least reach 30 world records,” Gebrselassie, 35, said. “I don’t know which one I’ll break next – maybe the marathon or the half-marathon.”
He set his first world record in 1994, running 12:56:96 for the 5,000 metres. He was sixth in the 10,000 metres at the Beijing Olympics.
In Melbourne, he is taking on Commonwealth Games marathon champion Samson Ramadhani and Kenyan half-marathon specialist Patrick Makau. Also on the grid at Albert Park, where the F1 Australian Grand Prix motor race is held, will be local boy Craig Mottram and reigning world marathon champion Luke Kibet of Kenya.
Mottram, whose previous longest race was 12 kilometres, said his best chance was if the pace was slow and it came down to a sprint for the line.
The race, part of a series that also runs in England, Ireland and Ethiopia, has attracted more than 4,000 entries.
The favourite among the women is Olympic marathon champion Constantine Dita of Romania. Challenging her are Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba, twice an Olympic marathon silver medalist, and Australia’s Benita Johnson.
The 15-kilometre world record in the men’s division is 41:29. It was set by Kenyan Felix Limo in 2001.
-DPA