Haile Gebrselassie wins 30th Great North Run
Sep 20 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
IT was like watching a sports car in a drag race with a family saloon. One moment they were neck and neck, the next there was a gap which grew and grew until his rival was nothing more than a dot in the distance.
Haile Gebrselassie has waited ten years to compete in this race, and the world’s greatest ever long-distance athlete did not disappointment – even if he was a little disappointed at failing to break the race record.
Not quite at his brilliant best at 37, perhaps, but he still made mincemeat of the famous old course, tagging along with the breakaway group for the first three miles, then going with Kenyan Kipllmo Kimutai until the fifth before accelerating away in the sixth.
As a race it was over by the halfway point, but not once did Gebrselassie ease up. His competition was the clock as the rest were left to challenge each other far behind him.
The Morrocan Jaouad Gharib had been the first to provoke a response when he reacted to a slow first mile with a little burst.#
American Dathan Ritzenhein, one of the men we thought might challenge the legend, never showed any inclination he was willing to tackle the task.
They finished well back in third and fourth place.
Kimutai had a go, but he had no answers to the question posed just before the halfway stage, leaving Gebrselassie to lap up the adulation along the course before he was roared down the finishing straight.
It was not the fastest time in the race’s history - that record still belongs to 2005 winner Zersenay Tadese in 59:05 - but it was still one of its most dominant performances.
The time was 59:33, the victory margin was 50 seconds.
A routine run for the great man - whose personal best is a remarkable 58.55 – but to put it into some sort of context it is worth noting the winning time was still a full minute faster than the Commonwealth record, a minute and a half faster than the British record and 41 seconds quicker than any European athlete has run this distance.
