The Great Haile Gebrselassie Retires
by: LetsRun.com
May 10, 2015
This time it’s official.
Haile Gebrselassie, one of the world’s greatest, if not the greatest distance runner, has retired from competitive running after finishing 16th at the Morrison’s Great Manchester Run on Sunday in 30:05.
Gebrselassie ends his career with 2 Olympic gold medals, 4 outdoor World Championship gold medals, and 27 world records, having set the world records at 5,000m, 10,000m, and the marathon as he led the sport into a new area. Gebrselassie was the best long-distance track runner in the world from 1993 to 2000, and then became a force at the marathon, becoming the first man to break 2:04:00 in the marathon running 2:03:59 at Berlin in 2008.
Gebrselassie was known for his accomplishments on the track and his amazing smile off it as he was one of the sports great ambassadors for two decades.
Unbelievably, Gebrselassie’s retirement is getting very little coverage. Prior to race a tipster with Ethiopian connections emailed us and said that he believed this tweet to be true:
#BREAKING @HaileGebr retires from competitions running the #Manchester10k @Great_Run tomorrow.
— Great Ethiopian Run (@greatethrun) May 9, 2015
and that Gebrselassie would retire after the race.
The tipster was right as Reuters has a picture of Gebrselassie finishing Manchester here and says, “During an interview afterwards he announced his retirement.”
A short article does not do enough justice to Gebrselassie’s career, so it’s probably best to let the fans give their thanks to Haile as he has been one of the most popular athletes in the sport for two decades. Share your thoughts here: Thank You Haile: The Great One Haile Gebrselassie has Officially Retired
Five years ago after the ING NYC Marathon, Haile Gebrselassie said he was retiring but he changed his mind and went on to set many master’s world records afterwards.
Gebrselassie’s retirement follows that of Paula Radcliffe last month.
Share your thoughts here: Thank You Haile: The Great One Haile Gebrselassie has Officially Retired
Great Manchester Results (Bernard Lagat broke Haile’s master’s world record, more on that here)
Place | Name | BIB | Club | Pos | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | STEPHEN SAMBU | 6 | 1 | 00:27:30 | |
2 | STEPHEN MOKOKA | 7 | 2 | 00:27:38 | |
3 | BERNARD LAGAT | 5 | 3 | 00:27:48 | |
4 | WILSON KIPSANG | 2 | 4 | 00:27:53 | |
5 | LEONARD KOMON | 3 | 5 | 00:28:19 | |
6 | TESFAALEM MEHARI | 8 | 6 | 00:28:23 | |
7 | ANDREW BUTCHART | 11 | Central Athletics Club | 29:09 | |
8 | ROSS MILLINGTON | 9 | Stockport Harriers & AC | 29:11 | |
9 | JONATHAN TAYLOR | 14 | Morpeth Harriers & Athletic Club | 29:19 | |
10 | MARK CHRISTIE | 48 | Mullingar Harriers | 29:20 | |
16 | Haile Gebrselassie | 30:05 |