Haile Wins Berlin, Sets WR

The inevitable question will be: what shoes was he wearing?

Will there be a WHISPER of this achievement in the US sports' media?

Geb is a monster, no question. Must've felt interesting to run that fast with no one near you towards the end.

Remarkable.

undoubtedly, unquestionably, the greatest runner ever......there is absolutely no quit in this man.Not sure if we will see this kind of runner in our lives again.

TViewer wrote:

Will there be a WHISPER of this achievement in the US sports' media?

Actually that's where I first got the news.

Nice that the first guy to call him and congratulate him was Tergat.

haile has a story on the front page of espn! Finally a little respect for something so amazing. I am so happy it sent chills up and down my spine

MarathonMind wrote:

Nice that the first guy to call him and congratulate him was Tergat.

First class.

Yank wrote:

that's a rough average of 71 seconds per 400 meters, I once ran a track workout at that pace...and watched the world go a bit gray afterwards

ouch

congrats to him

My once high school one mile PR?!

Now to do 25 plus more like that? :)

Well zippitty doo dah!

Yes,Geb is now definitely the greatest of all time.Kenny B could eventually surpass him,but i don't think he will.He hasn't got the speed of Geb when it comes to a sprint finish and i don't think he will be as successful in the longer races,if Kenny ever does move up in distance of course.

yahoo is your frind

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?ei=UTF-8&p=Haile+Gebrselassie&ni=20&fr=yfp-t-471&c=images

Another day, another deleted post on Letsrun. Watch how you talk about Hudson, guys.

Terry wrote:

Yes,Geb is now definitely the greatest of all time.Kenny B could eventually surpass him,but i don't think he will. He hasn't got the speed of Geb when it comes to a sprint finish and i don't think he will be as successful in the longer races, if Kenny ever does move up in distance of course.

1) Yes, of course Geb is without doubt the greatest right now, but...

2) Bekele most certainly DOES have the sprint finish speed of Geb, you are joking right? He's thrown down amazing last 400's and 200's before, and in fact outkicked Geb several times in head to head track match-ups. Remember 2003 Paris ? He smoked Geb the last 200.

3) In some ways it is hard to imagine Bekele running faster than Geb at the marathon, because Geb's just-run 2:04;26 perfomance was so perefect and amazing, BUT...... Bekele has surpassed Geb at just about every distance so far, and his possibly most dominant distance has been 12k X-C, a race that he has excelled at way more than Geb, and a race that many great marathoners were good at (ie, those who are great at 12k X-C , are often great at the marathon too).

SO..... if Bekele someday really focuses on the marathon like Geb has, he truly might take down one more of Geb's records. Nothing Geb or Bekele does ever again should really surprise any of us any more.

Terry wrote:

Yes,Geb is now definitely the greatest of all time.

Haile Gebrselassie doesn't have needed this record to be the greatest distance runner of all time. Since his second Olympic title it is not anymore a serious question. There are only two runners who were something like close to him: Nurmi and Zatopek. With this record, 15 years after his two world junior titles, Gebrselassie to me is the greatest in the history of the sport (male or female, any sport). My Nr. 1 always was Carl Lewis, but Haile finally has surpassed him. His achievements since 1991 even outweight Lewis' seven individual olympic gold medals in four Olympic Games. In my opinion, nobody else even is close to these two.

Now when it comes to cross country,yes,without doubt Kenny B is the best there's been.There is nothing more i want to see next year in Edinburgh,than Bekele winning that sixth world cross country title.

As for Paris 2003.Geb was already past his peak at that time and wasn't as fast as he had been,so of course he was going to get beat by Kenny.

When Geb was at his best he was never beat in a sprint finish,but Ken has been beaten twice in the World 5000m by Eliud Kipchoge and Hicham and then again by the Moroccan in the Olympic 5000m.The fact that he had already ran the 10000m is no excuse,because if you are the best you can win both as Lasse Viren did twice and he had to run heats for the 10000m.

I voted he would not get it. Proven wrong.

Haile is awesome, I loved seeing this.

There was no "of course" about it. Many were unsure if Bek would beat Geb that day. And that was 4 years ago and Geb has shown he is not much past his peak with all his great performances since then. Though I agree that 2003 wasn't his ultimate peak for 10,000m, he did run 26:30 that year (one is best ever), and his Paris race was one of his all-time best (running the sub 13:00 2nd half), if Kenny just hadn't been even better. So Geb was still quite near his peak that year.

1) Did Geb ever race a tactical 5k against a 3:43 miler, the best miler of all time ? No. If he had, he would have been outkicked too if it had come to that. And.....as I pointed out already, Bekele outkicked Geb both in Paris, AND earlier that year in another 10k, AND Bekele's best final 200 or 400 of 10k/5k's have been as fast as Geb's. Bekele's kick is as good for sure, though possibly his tactics have been lacking a few times.

2) Lasse Viren has little to do with this. Did Geb ever even attempt the double ?? Yes, in his first WC's he won a gold in the 10k and a SILVER in the 5k. In the Olympics, he was gonna try the double in Atlanta, but backed out of the 5k because of feet issues. So Geb never won the double either. Is being too young or having hurt feet valid excuses, or should he have won both if he was really the best, because according to you, "because if you are the best you can win both" ? I guess Geb is not "the best" ?

Bekele's finishing speed has certainly been as good Geb's.

Geb is only faster than KB at marathon, because KB has never run a marathon. When KB does, that record will fall again.