FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Phone: 030-301 288 10
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Haile Gebrselassie to run real,- BERLIN MARATHON
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.
"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.
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.
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.
More information as well as the possibility to register online at:
www.berlin-marathon.com
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