News Archive

Haile Gebrselassie’s next marathon will be the 33rd real,-

BERLIN-MARATHON on September 24th. This announcement was made by

Berlin’s Race Director Mark Milde today. The signing of Ethiopia’s

superstar is among the most high-carat commitments ever in the history

of the biggest German marathon race which belongs to the formation of

the World Marathon Majors (WMM). Haile Gebrselassie is the second star

runner signed for this year’s real,- BERLIN MARATHON. On September 24th

Japan’s Olympic Champion Mizuki Noguchi will run in Berlin as well.

Last year she won the race in a new Asian record of 2:19:12 hours.

"Special  Coup" said Milde

„We surely made a special coup by signing Haile

Gebrselassie. And we are happy that Haile, who is one of the best long

distance runners of all times, decided to come to the real,- BERLIN

MARATHON,“ Mark Milde said. The real,- BERLIN MARATHON already has

32,000 registrations and as soon as the limit of 40,000 participants is

reached, the registration will be closed.

20 world records 

Haile Gebrselassie dominated long distance track

running for years. He was 10,000 m Olympic Champion twice (1996 and

2000). At World Championships he won a gold medal at 10,000 m four

times in a row (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999). The 33 year-old set altogether

20 world records in his career. At the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 he

had to be content with fifth place in the 10,000 m final due to an

injury. After that Haile Gebrselassie decided to concentrate on road

running. This year he already broke two world records, which are not

yet officially approved: He ran the half marathon in 58:55 minutes and

clocked 1:11:37 hours for 25 k.

So far Haile Gebrselassie ran a marathon four times.

At an age of 15 he ran his first marathon in 2:48 hours in Ethiopia.

His real debut followed many years later: In London he finished third

in a very fast 2:06:35 in 2002. After he winning Amsterdam with a world

lead of 2:06:20 hours last October, he didn’t run that well at the

Flora London Marathon in April. Haile Gebrselassie finished ninth in

2:09:05 hours.

Scoring points for the Jackpot of WMM 

The improvement of his personal best is his premier

goal at the real,- BERLIN MARATHON. Furthermore Haile Gebrselassie

hopes to collect his first World Marathon Majors’ scoring points for

the jackpot in Berlin after missing out in London. In the WMM series

the best runners of the world collect points in a two years’ cycle.

Besides Berlin the BAA Boston Marathon, the Flora London Marathon, the

LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon and the ING New York City Marathon belong

to the series. The Olympic Marathons as well as the World Championship

Marathons will also count for the jackpot race. The best male and

female runners will share the jackpot of one million US-Dollars at the

end of the two year cycle. A maximum of four races will be counted.