Haile Gebrselassie And Mo Farah Set Records, Kenenisa Bekele Wins Great North Run
It was a pretty decorated podium at the Great North Run this weekend. Haile Gebrselassie, Mo Farah and Kenenisa Bekele, who have 12 world and seven Olympic titles between them, took the top three spots at the half marathon in England.
Gebrselassie wasn’t able to win the Great North Run but he was able to set a new record.
According to the Guardian, the 40-year-od runner finished the race in third place with a 1hr 00 min 41sec time. That’s the fastest half marathon in the plus 40 age group.
But the veteran runner wasn’t the only one to set a record this weekend. Mo Farah, who finished second with a 1hr 00min 09sec time, set a new record for a British runner.
Mo Farah has had his best success on the track (he currently holds the records for the 5,000 and 10,000m) but he has been training hard for the London Marathon. Gebrselassie, however, believes that Farah have made the move from track to road too early in his career.
The veteran said: “Mo, why do you have to move to the marathon so early? You’ve got a long career. (I) would like to advise him to stay a little bit longer on the track. Very few athletes are successful in this business from track to road. It looks like it is (too soon for him) but I don’t know maybe I make a mistake.”
Mo, of course, feels differently about his prospects at the London Marathon. Mo nearly took the win this weekend with a sprint at the end of the race but he couldn’t quite catch Bekele.
Farah said: “I thought I had it… You’re always going to be disappointed when you lose. You don’t want to lose, but to lose against Kenenisa, he’s a great athlete. He has great experience. At some point I honestly thought we were dropping him, but he wanted the pace to continue and he was feeling good. It would have been nice for me to come out and win it, but it went right to the line. Ken’s been training for this event and he’s in great shape. My main aim for the year was the world championships, so that’s the one I’ve been training for all year. But we showed today it was a great race – it was awesome in terms of having all three of us.”
[Photo Via Wikipedia]
