Haile Gebrselassie

Haile Gebrselassie (Amharic: ኃይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ^?, haylē gebre silassē; born 18 April 1973) is a retired Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.

Haile had major competition wins at distances between 1500 metres and the marathon, moving from outdoor, indoor and cross country running to road running in the latter part of his career. He broke 61 Ethiopian national records ranging from 800 metres to the marathon, set 27 world records, and is widely considered the greatest distance runner in history.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

In September 2008, at the age of 35, he won the Berlin Marathon with a world record time of 2:03:59, breaking his own world record by 27 seconds. The record stood for three years. Since he was over the age of 35, that mark still stands as the Masters Age group world record.

Haile Gebrselassie

Biography

Early career

Haile was born as one of ten children in Asella, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. As a child growing up on a farm he used to run ten kilometres to school every morning, and the same back every evening. This led to a distinctive running posture, with his left arm crooked as if still holding his school books.^[7]

Haile gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the 5000 -metre and 10,000-metre races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul,^[8] and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships.

The next year, in 1993, Haile won the first of what would eventually be four consecutive world championships titles in the men's 10,000 metres at the 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Championships. His win at the 1993 was however his most infamous as he accidentally stepped on the heel of Moses Tanui's shoe, causing it to fly off his foot. The contact causes Tanui to finish second behind Gebresalassie. Also at the 1993 World Championships he ran in the 5,000-metre race to finish a close second behind Ismael Kirui of Kenya. In 1994 he won a bronze medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Later that year he set his first world record by running a 12:56.96 in the 5,000-metres, breaking Saïd Aouita's record by two seconds.

 

In 1995, Haile ran the 10,000-metres in 26:43.53 in Hengelo, Netherlands, lowering the world record by nine seconds. That same summer, in Zürich, Switzerland, Haile ran the 5000 metres in 12:44.39, taking 10.91 seconds off the world record 12:55.30 (established by Kenya's Moses Kiptanui earlier in the year). This world record at the Weltklasse meet in Zürich was voted "Performance of the Year" for 1995 by Track & Field News magazine. At the same Weltklasse meet in Zürich in 1996, an exhausted Haile, suffering from blisters obtained on the hard track in Atlanta (where he had won the Olympic 10,000 metres gold), had no answer to the 58-second lap of Daniel Komen with five laps to go as Komen went on to win and just miss Haile's record, finishing in 12:45.09. In 1997, Haile turned the tables on Komen at the same meet. Coming off his third 10K world championship gold medal, Haile beat Komen in another Zürich classic on 13 August 1997, covering the final 200 metres in 26.8 seconds to break his 5000 metres world record with a time of 12:41.86.^[9] Komen, in turn, took Haile's record only nine days later when Komen ran a 12:39.74 performance in Belgium.^[10]

Achievements

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Ethiopia
1991	World Cross Country Championships	Antwerp, Belgium	8th	Junior race (8.415 km)	24:23
1992	World Cross Country Championships	Boston, United States	2nd	Junior race (7.8 km)	23:35
	World Junior Championships	Seoul, South Korea	1st	5000m	13:36.06
			1st	10,000m	28:03.99
1993	World Cross Country Championships	Amorebieta, Spain	7th	Senior race (11.75 km)	33:23
	African Championships	Durban, South Africa	2nd	5000 metres	13:10.41
			3rd	10,000 metres	27:30.17
	World Championships	Stuttgart, Germany	2nd	5000 metres	13:03.17
			1st	10,000 metres	27:46.02
1994	World Cross Country Championships	Budapest, Hungary	3rd	Senior race (12.02 km)	34:32
	World Road Relay Championships	Litochoro, Greece	2nd	Marathon relay	1:58:51
1995	World Cross Country Championships	Durham, England	4th	Senior race	34:26
	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	—	5000 metres	DNS
			1st	10,000 metres	27:12.95
1996	World Cross Country Championships	Stellenbosch, South Africa	5th	Senior race (12.15 km)	34:28
	Olympic Games	Atlanta, United States	—	5000 metres	DNS
			1st	10,000 metres	27:07.34
1997	World Indoor Championships	Paris, France	1st	3000 metres	7:34.71
	World Championships	Athens, Greece	1st	10,000 metres	27:24.58
1999	World Indoor Championships	Maebashi, Japan	1st	1500 metres	3:33.77
			1st	3000 metres	7:53.57
	World Championships	Seville, Spain	1st	10,000 metres	27:57.27
2000	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	1st	10,000 metres	27:18.20
2001	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	3rd	10,000 metres	27:54.41
	World Half Marathon Championships	Bristol, England	1st	Half marathon	1:00:03
2003	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, England	1st	3000 metres	7:40.97
	World Championships	Paris, France	2nd	10,000 metres	26:50.77
2004	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	5th	10,000 metres	27:27.70
2008	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	6th	10,000 metres	27:06.68

Marathon performances

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing  Ethiopia
2002	London Marathon		3rd	2:06:35
2005	Amsterdam Marathon		1st	2:06:20
2006	London Marathon		9th	2:09:31
2006	Berlin Marathon		1st	2:05:56
2006	Fukuoka Marathon		1st	2:06:52
2007	London Marathon		DNF	—
2007	Berlin Marathon		1st	2:04:26 WR
2008	Dubai Marathon		1st	2:04:53
2008	Berlin Marathon		1st	2:03:59 WR
2009	Dubai Marathon		1st	2:05:29
2009	Berlin Marathon		1st	2:06:08
2010	Dubai Marathon		1st	2:06:09
2010	New York City Marathon		DNF	—
2011	Berlin Marathon		DNF	—
2012	Tokyo Marathon		4th	2:08:17
2012	Fukuoka Marathon		DNF	—

Track and field circuit

World record and best performances

Personal bests

Outdoor track

Road

Indoor track