Marathon’s 2-hour mark can be breached soon enough: Haile Gebrselassie
Long-distance running legend Haile Gebrselassie could not stop breaking the barriers during his illustrious career, boasting of 27 world records, 4 World Championships and 2 Olympic gold medals. At 41, the Ethiopian hero now juggles, quite effectively, a bustling business empire and an inherent desire to run and inspire.
On October 19, the Adidas athlete will be in India to flag off the Bengaluru Marathon. “Two years ago, I came to Mumbai. I am a people’s person and the people in India are wonderful,” he told TOI in an exclusive e-mail interview. You could almost visualize his wide, honest smile. Of course, he had much more to share. Excerpts:
Kimetto shaved 26 seconds off the world record recently. Any reason you think the records are breaking so fast?
There are more athletes, so more chances for big talents to surface. Also, the training gets better and there is more knowledge about what works, medical and paramedical standards are also higher, there’s better knowledge about food. Apart from that, Berlin is a very flat course. Only around 32km it goes up slightly and then after 32km, it gets down a bit, so the course is easy: you get down when you get tired. Not too many curves – very flat. At the time of Berlin, it is always good weather in September in Germany; 9 out of 10 times it is great marathon weather: 12 degrees, low humidity, no wind.
Read more: Times of India
