FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AND FOR MY NEXT TRICK! GEBRSELASSIE AND WAMI MOVE ON
Twenty four world records, and counting. The Haile Gebrselassie road show
moves on from the latest addition to that list, a world record 2.04.26 in
the real,_Berlin Marathon on Sunday. His next dates with destiny? The Dubai
Marathon on January 18, 2008, then the Olympic marathon in Beijing in
August. But hasn't someone (Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru) recently 'stolen' the
half-marathon world record from him? "I have plans for that, but this will
be a secret," said Gebrselassie, who can be as entertaining in press
conferences as he can be in breaking world records. "I'm discussing it with
my manager. It's one of my aims (to retrieve the record)".
Ever since 2hr 10min was broken for the marathon some four decades ago,
talk has been of the two-hour marathon. "Sure," said Geb without
hesitation, "it will be done, maybe in 20 years, maybe forty years, nobody
knows. The more technology develops, the more athletes will run faster".
For himself, he is still stuck on the 2.03 prediction he first made three
months ago, then repeated prior to this race. "I can run 2.03. I have that
feeling. It is possible to run 2.03 here in Berlin, It will happen one
day".
After revealing that he celebrated his new record with a half-pint of beer,
"mixed with apple juice, to make it sweeter. I didn't finish it," he was
asked if he could design the Berlin course to be even faster. "If I
designed it, I'd make it harder," he joked. "No, everything was perfect
here. The course is fast, the weather was perfect, the rain the day before
made everything fresh. And the pacemakers were good. You don't often get
all these things together". He probably won't run the Berlin Marathon
again, but he does want to run a marathon in Berlin again. "I want to run
the world championships marathon, so I want to come back here in 2009".
Gete Wami's next date with destiny is less than five weeks' away. Having
also successfully defended her title here, she will run New York on
November 2. It's unusual, to say the least, such a short gap for such an
elite athlete. But she is tempted by the half million dollars overall prize
on offer for winning the World Marathon Majors' jackpot. The 'Majors' is a
series of five marathons – Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York –
who have combined to offer a million dollars, shared by the man and woman
who can amass the most points throughout two seasons. Wami took the lead
after Sunday's race, but she must prevent two-time New York winner, Jelena
Prokupcuka of Latvia taking a third Big-Apple title, in order to win the
pot herself. For anyone with any doubts that she might not be recovered,
she said, "I ran for a hour this morning, and felt fine. I could run
another marathon today"!
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