Haile Gebrselassie having second thought about retirement

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Jos Hermens, the Dutch manager of Haile Gebrselassie says the Ethiopian long-distance great is reassessing his sudden announcement to retire and hopes he will run until the London Olympics.

Hermens tells The Associated Press that a sudden knee injury which forced him out of Sunday’s New York Marathon left him in an emotional state, which led to the rash announcement.

Hermens has spoken to him by phone since and says “he was already a lot more neutral” during the conversation and said “let me think about it.”

Up to the New York race, Gebrselassie had said he wanted to compete through the 2012 Olympics.

Haile made the decision without consulting any of his coaching staff – and hinted that he be about to make a dramatic u-turn after posting two messages on Twitter.

“What a disappointing weekend, I didn’t plan to come back to Ethiopia this way. I wanted to succeed in New York,” Gebrselassie wrote after returning to his homeland.

“Now it is time for me to think about a lot of things,” he continued.

“I still love running. I will always run. Just give me some time to think things over.”

Compatriot Gebre Gebremariam, who won the men’s race in New York in a time of two hours, eight minutes and 14 seconds, thinks Gebrselassie made the decision in the heat of the moment and is confident that he will race again.

He said: “When I get back home I will start to speak to him to try to make him think again. He has to run two or three more races. I think he will change his mind.

“Haile is the king of athletics. He decided… after getting the injury. I think he was very emotional at that time.”

Haile won two Olympic 10,000-meter gold medals and set the marathon world record of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 59 seconds in 2008.