Haile bags diluted fourth Berlin gold as Kiprop hot on his heels
Ethiopia’s marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie and his countrywoman, Atsede Habtamu Besuye, celebrate after they won in the men’s and women’s races, respectively, at the 36th Berlin Marathon yesterday. Gebrselassie won for the fourth straight year but failed to break his own world record. Photo/REUTERS
BERLIN
Haile Gebrselassie won the real Berlin Marathon for the fourth year in succession yesterday morning. But having reached for the stars with a ferocious attempt to break his world record of 2.03.59, set here last year, the Ethiopian ended up with a handful of moondust, finishing in a jog of fatigue in 2.06.08.
“I was very tired, I pushed too much,” he said immediately afterwards.
Francis Kiprop of Kenya finished second in a personal best 2.07.04 as did Negari Terfa of Ethiopia, third in 2.07.40. Pre-race co-favourite Duncan Kibet of Kenya dropped back at halfway and eventually out of the race altogether. But he has the small consolation of remaining fastest marathoner of the year, with his 2.04.27 victory in Rotterdam in April.
It would crass to call this failure, since such ambition is what pushes back frontiers and forges legends and reputations. Haile lacks in none of those departments. The temperature was not as hot as expected (16 degrees Celcius, rising to 20 for the men’s finish), but the pace was.
Haile had asked for a tempo of 61 minutes 30 seconds at halfway, and was clocked through at 61.48, still some 16 seconds faster than his pace during last year’s world record.
With Kibet already off the back of the pack, the remaining pacemakers – all Kenyan, incidentally, which gives you some idea of how relaxed is this East African rivalry – accelerated to deliver Haile to 30km in 1.27.49, just four seconds slower than he had hoped, but now 36 seconds ahead of last year’s record.
Final straw
The final pacemaker, Sammy Kosgei, upped the allure even more, going through the next two kilometres in 2.45 and 2.46 and reaching 32km some 39 seconds ahead of world record schedule. And that may have been the final straw because, having maintained a relentless sub-three minutes per kilometre pace (average 2.56 was necessary for a new record), Haile dropped off to successive kilometres well outside three minutes.
And that was that. He slowed and tired visibly, and although finishing well clear of closest pursuer Kiprop his time was only his own sixth best, the 26th fastest in history, and, icidentally, three seconds slower than Brazilian Ronaldo da Costa’s 2.06.05 set here in 1998, a record which prompted a spate of fast times after a 10-year hiatus of no men’s marathon records.
There was the consolation of a 30km world record (unofficial), his 1.27.49 (the pacemakers duly dropped back a little in order not to spoil the party) being 11 seconds faster than the 1.28.00 achieved by Japanese Takayuki Matsumiya in a rarely run 30km race in February 2005. It will be Haile’s 27th world best or record. But it, patently was not the one he sought.
Kiprop improved his personal best by one minute and 24 seconds, from his 2.08.30 fourth-place in Seoul last year, and Terfa was 1.17 faster than his 2.09.01 for second-place in Xiamen, China, in January.
Duncan Kibet dropped out shortly after the 30km mark. Luke Kibet (no relation), the 2007 world champion, made a late appearance as a pacemaker but dropped out at 15km with a back injury.
The women’s podium looked destined to be populated by Ethiopians, but after a group of four dominated the early stages of the race, only Atsede Habtamu lasted the course in the lead, winning in 2.24.47, half a minute inside her personal best set in finishing second in Dubai this year.
Silvia Skvortsova of Russia came through strongly to finish second in 2.26.24, a 33 second improvement on her best, a seventh-place in London 2002. Debutante Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia was third (2.26.38).
