BERLIN — Haile Gebrselassie won the Berlin marathon for the fourth straight year Sunday, but the Ethiopian failed to break his own world record after fading in the warm weather.
Gebrselassie, inside word-record pace for most of the race, clocked a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 8 seconds, well outside the blistering record of 2:03:59 he set in the same city in 2008.
Kenyan Francis Kiprop was second, almost a minute later, and Ethiopian Negari Terfa came in third.
Gebrselassie, who also broke the world record here in 2007, and challenger Duncan Kibet, the second fastest man over the distance, set off at a quick pace.
With a group including Luke Kibet, who won the marathon gold medal at the Osaka 2007 World athletics championships, Gebrselassie shook off Kibet with just under 13 miles left.
But as the temperature climbed to around 68 degrees, the 36-year-old started to struggle.
"I am OK but in the last few kilometers I was very tired," Gebrselassie said after the race. "Maybe I pushed too much. Yes, I did. I was trying to push but the last five kilometers I was tired and I could not push any more."
"The last 10 kilometers it became a little bit hot," added Gebrselassie, who wants to run the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics.
Gebrselassie has twice won Olympic gold in the 10,000 meters and won four consecutive world athletics championships gold medals at that distance.
Fellow Ethiopian Atsede Habtamu Besuye won the women’s race in 2:24:47.
— Agencies
