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Lead Stories: Sunday, November 23, 2008

Gebrselassie to Defend Dubai Marathon Title

Posted October 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Organizers of the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, set for January 16, in the United Arab Emirates, announced today that world marathon record holder Haile Gebrselassie would defend his 2008 title. Gebrselassie’s Dutch management firm, Global Sports Communications, confirmed his participation in a separate e-mail message to Race Results Weekly.

Gebrselassie, 35, owns the three fastest times in world history for the marathon, including last Sunday’s 2:03:59 in Berlin, the first-ever sub-2:04 marathon. He’ll certainly be looking to lower that mark in Dubai where organizers have put a USD 1 million bonus on the line in addition to the USD 250,000 first prize which is already the highest winner’s check in marathon running.
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Gebrselassie Oh So
Close in Dubai

Posted January 18th, 2008 at 12:58 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

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.
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Gebrselassie Half-Way at Dubai Marathon in 1:01:27

Posted January 17th, 2008 at 11:34 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Pat Butcher reports that Haile Gebrselassie has hit the half-way mark at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon in 1:01:27. He hit the half in 1:02:29 in Berlin last September when he set his 2:04:26 world record.

More later…

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Dubai Marathon Start Lists

Posted January 17th, 2008 at 11:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Here are the start lists for tomorrow’s Dubai Marathon:

MEN -
1, Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia, 2:04:26
2, Fabiano Joseph, Tanzania, 2:13:24 (pacer)
4, Jackson Koech Mengich, Kenya, 2:08:02 (pacer)
5, Eshetu Wendimu, Ethiopia, DEBUT (pacer)
6, Dereje Tesfaye, Ethiopia, 2:11:10
7, William Todoo Rotich, Kenya, 2:09:53
8, Raymond Kipkoech, Kenya, 2:06:47
9, Sammy Korir, Kenya, 2:04:56
10, Linus Ngetich, Kenya, 2:12:17
11, Kutema Nigusse, Ethiopia,
12, Eshetu Mamo, Ethiopia,
13, Duncan Kibet, Kenya, DEBUT
14, Wilson Chelal, Kenya,
15, Gashaw Melese Asfaw , Ethiopia, 2:08:03
16, Gudisa Shentema Kudama, Ethiopia, 2:09:46
17, Asnake Fikadu, Ethiopia, 2:14:12
18, El Hassan Lashimi, France, 2:10:10
19, Tariku Aboset Bokan, Ethiopia,
20, Solomon Negash, Ethiopia,
21, Tesfaye Tola Heyi, Ethiopia, 2:06:57
22, Isaac Macharia, Kenya, 2:10:59
23, Martin Fagan, Ireland, DEBUT
24, Samson Chebli, Kenya,
25, Abel Kirui, Kenya, 2:06:51 (Pacer)
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Gebrselassie Hoping for Perfect Race in Dubai

Posted January 16th, 2008 at 8:00 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Setting a world record is never easy, but it’s particularly difficult in the marathon. Not only must an athlete spend three to four injury-free months training for a single competitive effort, he must have near-perfect conditions: a flat course, excellent pacemaking, ideal weather, and a well-marked and measured course. A little luck doesn’t hurt, either.

Heading into Friday’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon,
Haile Gebrselassie is hoping that all of these factors will line up in his favor so he can break his own world standard of 2:04:26 set in Berlin last September. In short, he’s looking for the perfect race.

“The top priority is not the money,” Gebrselassie said referring to the $1 million bonus for a new world record race organizers have on offer. “It’s the race. But the marathon is not an easy event, you cannot predict. Everything is perfect, I hope it will be more perfect for the race.”
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Training for Dubai, Gebrselassie & Kiplagat Face Different Challenges

Posted January 7th, 2008 at 3:34 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

With the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon looming in just 11 days, Haile Gebrselassie and Lornah Kiplagat are making their final preprations, each facing their own special challenges.

Gebrselassie, the world record holder and #2-ranked marathoner in the world last year in Race Results Weekly’s rankings, is dreaming of the $1 million bonus on the line for toppling his own world best of 2:04:26 set in Berlin last September. Well, at least his Dutch manager Jos Hermens is.

“I and he are certain he can do under 2:04,” Hermens is quoted by race organizers as saying last week.

But Gebrselassie himself is more circumspect. “Yes, I did 2:04 in Berlin,” Gebrselassie told race organizers via telephone over the weekend. “But everything was perfect, the weather, the course, the pacemaking. Sure, it’s possible to do under 2:04, but everything has to be perfect again.”
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Kiplagat Has Calf Strain,
Not Knee or Ankle Injury

Posted December 24th, 2007 at 2:28 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

At yesterday’s Lotto Cross Cup event in Brussels, reigning world cross country champion Lornah Kiplagat was unable to finish the race, stopping after three of four laps in the women’s 6 km race which was won by Belgium’s Veerle Dejaeghere.

The Dutchwoman stopped because she felt a strain in her calf, not because of a knee or ankle injury which has also been reported.

“She started easy and ran very comfortable,” wrote her husband and manager, Pieter Langerhorst, in an e-mail message to Race Results Weekly. “She felt great and wanted to start pushing the pace with 1 kilometer to go. Right before the moment she wanted to start pushing, she felt something in her calf and stopped immediately.”

Kiplagat, who is scheduled to run the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on Jan. 18, was examined back at her hotel.
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World Record Holder Kiplagat To Run Dubai Marathon

Posted November 9th, 2007 at 12:42 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The fastest woman ever over the half-marathon distance has decided to run twice as far at next January’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, organizers announced yesterday.

Lornah Kiplagat, the reigning IAAF world cross country and road running champion, has been lured to the desert by the chance to win a $1,000,000 bonus for the world record and also a $250,000 first prize, the largest in marathon running.

“When we announced the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon was being taken to the next level thanks to the support of Dubai Holding, our aim was to attract the very cream of long distance running,” said event director Peter Connerton through a media release.

Kiplagat, 33, was born in Kenya but became a Dutch citizen in 2003. At last October’s IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy, she scorched a pending world record for the half-marathon of 1:06:25, passing through 20-K in 1:02:57, also a pending world record.
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Marathon in Dubai to Offer $1MM Prize Money Purse

Posted April 18th, 2007 at 1:11 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon announced last week that the next edition of their event, scheduled for Friday, January 18, 2008, would offer a $1,000,000 prize money purse plus an additional $1,000,000 world record bonus. Both the male and female winners will receive $250,000, the largest guaranteed prize money payments in marathon running.

The money will come from directly from Dubai’s ruler, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whose official title is “Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai.”

The race, which had its 8th edition this year, implemented a new course for 2007. William Rotich of Kenya (2:09:53) and Magarsa Askale Tafa of Ethiopia (2:27:19) own the current course records, well north of the current men’s and women’s world records of 2:04:55 and 2:15:25 set by Paul Tergat and Paula Radcliffe, respectively, in Berlin and London in 2003.
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