Ethiopian Breaks World Record in Marathon, Apologizes

(from Nazret.com) - Big news from over the weekend!

BERLIN (AFP) — Double Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie broke the world marathon record with an official time of 2hr 4min 26sec to win the 34th Berlin Marathon on Sunday [Sept 30, 2007].

The 34-year-old Ethiopian, who won 10,000m gold at Atlanta in 1996 and at Sydney four years later, bettered Kenyan Paul Tergat's record of 2hr 4min and 55sec set in 2003 also in the German capital.

"Don't ask me how proud I am, words can't describe," said the breathless new world record holder who picks up the 50,000 winner's cheque on top of his 250,000 fee for competing. "It's something really special."

And here's another angle on the same story - very nice to see what kind of person he is:

BERLIN, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Less than ten minutes after breaking the world marathon record on Sunday, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie was handed a cell phone -- it was Paul Tergat calling from Kenya to offer his congratulations.

"I'm sorry," Gebrselassie told his great rival and long-time friend after winning the Berlin marathon in two hours four minutes 26 seconds, shattering by 29 seconds Tergat's record set on the same course in 2003.

Tergat, who was pipped for the gold medal in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics by Gebrselassie in two classic 10,000 metres battles, would have none of it, telling Gebrselassie he was delighted for him.

"I am sorry -- this record belonged to Paul Tergat," Gebrselassie told a news conference when asked about the phone call. "Paul is my friend."

Gebrselassie tried to tell Tergat he thought he had better weather conditions this year compared to 2003, when it was sunnier and warmer, although there was less wind. But Tergat responded that records were meant to be broken.

"I really wanted to do this record but I was a little bit worried about it, worried about attacking my friend's record," said Gebrselassie, 34, who fell 61 seconds short a year ago in Berlin in his first attempt to break Tergat's mark of 2:04.55.

"I think Paul understands that. I talked to him and said 'Hi, Paul, I'm sorry.' I said 'You can come here and try to get it back again next year'."