HAILE GEBRSELASSIE LOST the race against time on Sunday when Patrick Makau shattered his marathon world record and ended an era of two decades dominated by arguably the greatest distance runner in history.
His lungs seizing up and struggling for air after more than 17 miles of the Berlin Marathon, Gebrselassie finally quit shortly after mile 21. By then, Makau was more than two minutes ahead – on his own and on the way to the German capital’s landmark Brandenburg Gate and a new world record.
“I was hoping to gain a lot of experience but not to win,” Makau said after slashing 21 seconds from Gebrselassie’s old mark. Makau pulled away after 16 miles and finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds.
Gebrselassie, whose previous record stood at 2:03.59, pulled up after Makau’s breakaway and seemed on the verge of giving up when he stopped running and bent over, holding his chest. After about a minute, he resumed the race.
“He was still feeling good at 25K but then his lungs started tightening up, he could not breathe, we don’t know why,” Gebrselassie’s agent Jos Hermens told the Associated Press.
Gebrselassie suffers from asthma and is allowed to take medicine to treat the condition, but hadn’t taken any because he had not had any problems for months, Hermens said. “Maybe this was a mistake, but he felt fine before, his preparation was good,” Hermens added. “This is not the end of Haile, but this is the end of an era.”
Gebrselassie had won four successive Berlin marathons from 2006 and set his world record in 2008. The 38-year-old pulled out of the New York City Marathon in November with a knee injury and retired immediately after the race but changed his mind eight days later. His main objective in Berlin was to run a good time and qualify for Ethiopia’s Olympic team.
Stephen Kwelio Chemplany, a pacemaker from Kenya, finished second in 2:07.55, and another Kenyan, Edwin Kimaiyo, was third in 2:09.50.
Florence Kiplagat of Kenya won the women’s race in 2:19.44 to complete her first marathon, ahead of Irina Mikitenko of Germany and world record holder Paula Radcliffe of Britain, who was competing for the first time since finishing fourth in New York in 2009 and secured qualification for the 2012 Olympics in the process.
