GEBRSELASSIE OH SO CLOSE IN DUBAI
By David Monti, (c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

As ING New York City Marathon director Mary Wittenberg once said: "You can't script sport."

Haile Gebrselassie's world record attempt Friday at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon veered off plan when the great Ethiopian scorched the first half in 1:01:27, at least half a minute faster than he had intended.  He had hoped to run the second half of the race faster than the first, but fading in the later kilometers he only managed 1:03:26 for the last 21.1 km.  Nonetheless, his final time of 2:04:53 was still the second-fastest marathon of all-time, two seconds faster than Paul Tergat's 2003 world record set in Berlin.

Although Gebrselassie missed out on the $1 million world record bonus, he still won $250,000 in prize money, the largest first prize in marathon running.

Two-time LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon champion Berhane Adere won the women's race in 2:22:40 (unofficially).  Like Gebrselassie, she earned $250,000.

ENDS

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